Make a Way When There's not One
by Doppler Effect
Summary: The homicide department picks up a case with an ending they weren't expecting for, involuntarily bringing in people who weren't interested in being involved. Some things that are personal are best kept quiet, but others can be dangerous secrets.
1. Prologue

a/n: I've decided I'll type this whole thing out before posting it. I'll see how that goes and use it as a test run. It just means I'm going to need reminding to post, I think. When you type, you remember you have to post it, but I won't have that nice kick in the butt, so…

By the way, I feel bad. Reviewers are always complimenting me on how I always make this great humorous stories and have them laughing and stuff (and I'm shocked they think I'm funny. I try to be, I really do, but that I manage it is what amazes me). But then I write this fic and… it's not funny. I will try my best to go back through and insert as much humor as possible, because this is a storyline that needs some humor, but it won't be as funny compared to my other ones. Just a heads up. Also due to the story line, there will be less Castle in it than Alex Rider. I only had a clever plot for one side. Sorry, obsessed Castle fans.

* * *

><p><em>Ben was dropped to the ground. He couldn't see anything out of the blindfold, and his hands were tied behind his back. No one had told him anything, of course, and he didn't know what was going on or where they had taken him. It wasn't like any of them were going to tell him if he asked, either. Without making a sound, he lay there for several minutes. Some of the people left the nearby area, if he judged their footsteps accurately, and the remaining ones paced a ways off. If he had to guess, they were waiting for someone. Why?<em>

_Footsteps quickly ran closer from the opposite direction of the group of people, and someone else dropped down behind him, but not as roughly as he had. Whoever it was had dropped down on to their knees, Ben guessed, and this theory only seemed more likely as hands suddenly gripped his in a friendly gesture, and started working on the knots on his wrists frantically. Several of the captors came closer as well, and it sounded like someone grabbed his "friend" 's arm and tried to pull him away from Ben. The "friend" slapped the man away and scrambled at the knots._

_It suddenly struck Ben as to who the "friend" was. One of his hands came free even as the "friend" was dragged off and away. He yanked the gag out of his mouth, and yelled "Alex! Don't!" in the way of the retreating people as he rolled up onto his hands and knees. But Alex was done fighting. He had done what he'd meant to do. As Ben scrambled to his feet to follow the group, someone hit him over the head with something and he dropped._

* * *

><p>Fox woke up in the familiar cabin of the K-Unit. His eyes were wide, and he was sweating. Both hands clenched the sheets, and his breathing was rough. He closed his eyes, trying to calm his heart rate, and soothing his frantic mind. The memories of that time kept coming back. The two months leading up to that one moment had been terrible, some of the most horrific of his life. He had scars from it that would never heal, and not all of them were physical. But he was positive by all accounts that that last moment when Alex was dragged away was the worst of it all. He could deal with all the physical pain and mind games, but…<p>

When he had woken up, he had found his way out of the dark woods in the mountain he had been dumped in. A nearby town was below, and luckily some people in it spoke English. He could tell from signs above stores and restaurants that he was somewhere in Germany, and the suspicion was confirmed when a black car pulled up in the town and an MI6 agent picked him up and took him to the airport. He was debriefed in the hospital he was taken to. When he asked after his partner, he was alerted that news from Scorpia leaks had said Alex was gone. Ben begged release from the agency. It was granted, albeit reluctantly, and he had a message sent to the FFSAS. As he had already had training, they agreed to let him back in as long as he could pass the training again. The FFSAS sergeant broke in on the phone call, knowing Fox, and specifically said he had to actually _wait_ to heal before trying. Ben gave a chagrined reply, as that had been exactly what he had NOT been thinking of doing, and agreed. A man named Coyote had been going from unit to unit, filling spots, and he was currently in his spot at K-Unit. Fox passed the training, and Coyote again slipped off to another unit while he regained his old spot.

Immediately, the other three knew something was wrong. He spoke less, and there were, of course, the scars. Snake had done a psychological evaluation, he assumed, and reported his findings to Wolf and Eagle. He probably came to the same conclusion as the other doctors had, that the ex-agent was suffering from PTSD. Ben knew they were worried and curious (as they had a right to be), but he couldn't bring himself to tell them what had happened, and how he had failed.

Now, he sat up in bed. They had training in an hour and a half, he judged by glancing at his watch. Wolf would be up soon, and Snake just a little bit after. Eagle would sleep in until the last minute, but would somehow manage to pass inspection. Fox's sleep pattern had been irregular, and he woke up before or after the others, depending on when his dreams woke him. He knew that once he had been so tired he hadn't even woken, and his unit had actually covered for him. The sergeant had let it pass, knowing that Fox was suffering.

Just yesterday he had called him in, telling him he had to do something about this. He couldn't keep it up, and it would put people in danger in the field. Fox told him this would be the only job he could do now, after the horror of his last mission in MI6 he didn't think he could do anything else, and said he was trying. The sergeant was adamant that he needed to do more, and when Fox admitted he was out of ideas, he said he need to tell the rest of his unit about whatever had happened. Fox had been stricken, but the sergeant said chances were it would work. The only person who knew as of right now was the person who had debriefed him, something that would not be helping the situation.

Unfortunately, Fox was pretty sure Eagle had been eavesdropping. This meant he was probably going to have to fess up unless he wanted his head talked off by Eagle. And Wolf was definitely going to push him into it soon. He was strict about no secrets that could be dangerous (although he had given Fox a bit of a break on this one, thank God), but Snake, being the medic, was going into more of the 'tough love' approach.

He sat up. At first he thought everyone was still asleep; until he glimpsed a flash of light reflect off Wolf's eyes as they opened slightly. He squinted in the light, catching sight of Fox. Neither acknowledged the other further, and Fox left the cabin for some fresh air.

* * *

><p>At the same time in a different place, something Ben never would've guessed was happening.<p>

Alex bolted out of the back door, and fell to his knees. He crawled away from the door as smoke billowed out of it. There were frantic yells coming from inside the compound, as people tried to scramble free of the fire. A mysterious occurrence had happened, and one of the ventilation fans near the boiler room exploded. When no one had immediately noticed this, as the fan exploded in a relatively uninhabited area that people weren't in because of the time, and the fact that the prisoners were kept there, the explosion had time to turn into flame and go untamed for some time, until the noise the prisoners was making reached the ears of their captors, who came too late to stop the flame. The fire burned away some of the walls and supports, and quite a few of the prisoners were able to escape. Scorpia would later be unable to determine how many exactly had managed it, but as he was closest, it was assumed that Alex Rider had met his death.

That was according to the plan. As soon as he had his breath back, Alex was off again, sprinting low over the grass. Other fleeing people could be seen running from the fire, and none of them paid attention to one another. The fire was out of control, and no one was staying around to see the result.

He reached the end of the compound, where the wire fences were already being ripped through and torn down in a scramble out. The fire had hit the grass, and was spreading quickly. 'Borrowed' trucks were run through the fence, and others running passed through the gaping holes they left. Those on that side were able to just take the front gate out, but that was a minority. The rest didn't care about how much it would cost to fix everything later.

Two days later, a plane would leave an airport sixty miles from the pile of ashes. There would be a teenager on board, who no one would take a second look at, and wouldn't even remember. The plane would land a few hours later in New York City, and the boy would disappear into the crowds of faces.

Alex was running free. And Scorpia wasn't getting him back.

* * *

><p>Castle swept dramatically into the room as usual, and glanced at the three coworkers at their desks. Ryan was sleeping, his forehead flat against the desk. Esposito occasionally shot wistful glances at him, obviously wishing he could drop off too. As usual, Beckett looked to be the only one awake and doing what she was supposed to be doing. Castle, having no obligations to help with the paperwork, dropped both his and Beckett's coffees off at their desks. Then he departed again for a few more moments, and reappeared with a fresh mug for the other two.<p>

"Thanks, man. You're a god," Esposito groaned, accepting the coffee with a reverent expression. Castle moved on, and set the second cup down a bit too loudly on Ryan's desk. He jerked up off it, and fell off his chair. "Well, maybe not to his beauty sleep," the first added to his previous assessment.

Ryan picked himself off the floor and back to his seat while Beckett rolled her eyes. Castle dropped into his own seat, picking up his coffee and savoring it in his hands. They had just finished off a long case that had ended in a car crash, and the paperwork had built up quite quickly. Now, they were dealing with the consequences of a 'fun case', as Castle had called it.

"What're you doing here?" Beckett asked, her expression and tone giving away her doubt that he was here for any sort of humor. How much excitement could come of watching three people do paperwork all day, after all?

"Just bored," Castle responded with a shrug. "Nothing to do at home, and I can't type, so I decided to come here."

"This is more interesting that your house?" Ryan said doubtfully, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. He still looked sleep deprived when he was done. "Dude, really, why are you here?"

"New school year started," Castle quietly moaned, covering his face in his hands.

Esposito pointed at him. "What's he talking about?" he asked Ryan and Beckett, who shrugged.

"Alexis started her new school year, which means the paperwork from the school comes in like you wouldn't believe. I don't know _why_, but they ask the same questions every year, because apparently they misplaced everything from last year."

"What's that got to do with here?" Ryan asked. He glanced down, and saw the coffee. He jumped in a mixture of surprise and excitement. Esposito shook his head with a small sigh.

When Castle didn't immediately answer, Beckett did it for him. "He's hoping that by staying here he can forget about all the paperwork they're going to send home at the beginning of the year. It'll still be waiting there when you get back," she pointed out, saying the last bit to him. He shrugged. "Anyway, hopefully we won't have anything else today so we can just get this done and over with."

"Ah, this is New York City. Land of the loud talkers, honking horns, and good hot dogs. Of course something's going to happen."


	2. Chapter 1

a/n: Didn't mention this first chapter, but I don't own the series _Castle_ or the books _Alex Rider._

By the way, if you like this story, you might like my sister(SamayouTamashi)'s story End of the Road. I'll admit that there are a lot of involuntary similarities to the stories that I didn't notice until it was too late. See how much she influences me?

* * *

><p>Alex sighed. After getting out of the taxi he had hailed at the airport, he started walking. The taxi had taken him the exact opposite direction he needed to go, which was what he had intended. If anyone were looking for him, which he doubted, then they would have some serious trouble finding him. He doubted that, however, since everyone thought he was dead right now. In the mean time, he had work to do.<p>

Time in the compound had been rigid and difficult. He hadn't gone through it alone, however. He was kept in an area with the rest of the prisoners (other agents and soldiers), with bars that allowed them to see each other. This was probably for psychological reasons, so that they could all see how bad off the others were, and would know the moment someone broke.

Through hand signals, the other agents, soldiers and Alex had worked together. It wasn't like they were idiots, but while they all had trust issues, they all also wanted out. It had started just as a way to pass the time, and have a bit of rebellion. Hand signals that were taught generally to agents were used between them, conversing silently without their guards noticing. Then the soldiers started picking up on it, and the agents would play 'Charades' to help teach them. Sign language was the base behind all this, and Alex was pretty sure they were all experts on it now (although admittedly they _had_ made up a few because they didn't know the real ones).

Then in one moment of boredom, someone asked what everyone was going to do when they got out. Several responses were made, until someone asked when the 'when' was going to be. To get through the day, as the 'interrogations' every one of them went through (although after forming the bonds with their prison mates, none of them wanted to break in front of their new comrades*), they started plotting ways out. It was sarcastic, and many plans had been laid out. One had included using a Tarzan yell to shatter the walls and escape, while another required them to grab a herd of passing gorillas and launch them through the halls. Until one day, the joke was no longer a joke. It became a serious discussion, and they took extraordinary lengths to keep their talking secret from anyone. They had already been avoiding the cameras, but now it was for life-or-death, not just to escape a day of punishment torture. Ideas were bounced around at a break-neck pace, and several suggestions were made to be kept in mind. The agreement was made early on to let the plan be for a while, until they knew a target Scorpia had they could counterattack against. If they were going to strike against their captors, than they would do it in one hell of a blow.

At the same time, they listened into conversations the guards had. That didn't require any spy work, as they liked to jeer the prisoners by telling them of what they were invoking and planning at the moment. Finally, they heard it. One of the major plans they were putting into action was going to take place in America, and it was going to involve a bomb. Soon after hearing that, they set the plan into action, stealing one of the guard's cigarette lighters. During off moments over the next day, they picked the locks and left them open, until an opportunity came by to steal a pair of keys. That had been the first part of the idea, followed by Alex's combusting part.

He had grabbed a dried bloody shirt (because while they did bother to give them changes of clothes once the first pairs were ruined, they didn't take the old ones away), opened a vent, and ripped up the shirt into shreds that would easily float away. He lit the strips on fire, and sent them into the vent. The fan did the rest, sucking them in. Too much of the flame went in for safety, and at least one bit caught the fan itself and lit the engine on fire. The fan exploded, catching the nearby boiler room in the flames. And so it had spread.

While the fan had been his idea (having struck when he was investigating the room, looked into the vent, and saw the fan), the rest of it had been thought up by the others. While the guards were distracted by the sudden loud noise from the nearby room, all the open cell doors flew open and the prisoners shot out. The guards were overpowered and shoved back into the cells, and the rest of the agents and soldiers were freed. Alex stole for them a few sets of truck keys and map plans. By the time he had located them, another had memorized the escape route and the way to the parking lot, as the map was computerized and impossible to take with them. That person led the way out, and the group departed, some taking the trucks and the others on foot. They split ways even before they reached the doors, each running off to complete the remainder of their mission.

Obviously, the bomb had to be stopped. That much had been unanimous right off the bat. It was what they had revolved their whole timing around, but the discussion came down to _how_ they would do it and who they would send. Of course, everyone wanted to be on the team that would get everything done, but not everyone could be. The group would have to split up into three base teams, one of them branching off further. There were fourteen of them in all, including Alex. Ten of them would break off into separate teams and distract Scorpia by making them go after those escaping prisoners. Their job was to evade them as long as possible and make it look like there were more fleeing than there actually was. A different group of two would get out of the area by getting on board a plane, and would contact their agencies as quickly as possible to alert them to the situation. The remaining two people would be going after the bomb.

Who was to go was based on several things. For one, they had to be good at evading Scorpia and spying, but also had to be able to fight well and be in good physical shape. They also had to be trained in bomb disposal, for another, or be valuable backup. This cut down the numbers to a mere five. One more had to be eliminated to join the main pack while the rest split into two teams of two and performed their jobs. After all, the other team of two had to be able to take the first's job in case both of those two were killed. They were the only other ones out of the area. The reason they sent people out to dispose of the bomb even as people were being alerted was from the worry that the agencies would not be able to react fast enough.

They bumped out the last person, and Alex was surprised to see he was among the remaining group. Now to decide who took what job. This was done by finding out who had the best standing with who they worked for. That was, obviously, not Alex, and he was put on the bomb disposal team with one other.

By the time the group put their plan into action, they had run through what they were to do many times and were as prepared as they could be. Alex's partner was changed with the fifth possibility, as the original one was shot in the kneecap during an interrogation beforehand, and would not be able to run well enough at the time of the mission. He was among the people who took one of the jeeps, along with the other people who couldn't run as well as the others.

Before they had even left the building, Alex saw his new teammate get shot down. No one else did, however, and there wasn't time to pick a replacement. He tried to contact the backup team, but one was shot and taken on a jeep with the main group. He was able to exchange some words with the last one, and they were forced to split up the last time Alex saw him. He didn't make it in time to catch the flight, if he was even still alive, and Alex took the plane to NYC on his own with no partner and no backup.

That got him here, to the middle of New York City, with a bomb to dispose of, possible Scorpia to fend off, and little bomb disposing experience. Oh, and did he mention he had a side job included in that that had to be accomplished? And that it had to be done during and immediately afterwards for him to be able to save a life?

When in need of something done against all odds to the point of impossibility, just call him up. Alex would be sure to be able to whip up some plan that would make everything better.

Or that was the word that was apparently going around, anyway.

Walking down the street, he thought over everything he had to do and accomplish, and the order it was to be done in. He knew the location of the bomb, and he couldn't alert the PD to it. Chances were that Scorpia had someone in there that had been planted before the mission to be sure the police department couldn't turn up in time to stop the explosion. While simply walking in and stopping the bomb sounded easy enough, he also had to do it while fighting off the team of Scorpia that was sure to be around it. That part of things he had three days to accomplish.

He had to rent a room with a computer, and hire a gang for something. That bit had to be done in the span of three days for it to play out as he wanted it to. He would give them the temporary instructions, and then give the extended ones later, after he disposed of the bomb. Dropping off the extended part had to be done immediately after the bomb was disposed of. Scorpia would think he would be dead up until that moment, and he would have to act swiftly for everything to flow together. So long as it worked.

As for the bomb disposing, he was still thinking about that bit. He really didn't have that much experience in disposing enough to do it on his own. He had just been sent in because it would make his partner look less suspicious. So for the bomb disposing, he would have to find some way to get someone to disarm it…

Alex halted, and stepped out of the main path of things to rub his aching head. Someone selling things from a street stand offered him a hot dog, and it occurred to him he was hungry. He waved off the hot dog with a smile, and started walking again. He found a Panera's and slipped in. Staying inconspicuous, he ordered tea, soup, and some bread. He paid with money stolen from the compound. There had been almost no aspect they hadn't covered. This was what happened when you got a group of intelligent people together out for a cause of revenge when they had experience enough in this sort of thing.

The person working behind the counter accepted his money and handed him the hot water and his bread. He took both, acknowledging the curious and wary expression he was given and wondering over it. He took a tea bag from one of the boxes nearby, and set it down on a table in an alcove away from the window. Some habits don't change. While waiting for the soup, he slipped off to the bathroom to clean off any immediate grime, and take a leak. When he finished his business and glanced in the mirror, he winced. While the prisoners could see one another, they couldn't see themselves. He had gotten some of the blood and dirt cleaned off at the airport he had escaped to (the same place he got a change of clothes from), but it had been dark and he hadn't seen everything. Now he could.

Two parallel scars marred one cheek, one still healing. Another ran alongside his left eye, right above it. A bruise was visible on his collar line, from a choking grip on his neck. His hands were still burned from the fire, and he was shaking ash from the fire out of places that bewildered him for ash to get to. He also knew without looking that below his clothes he looked a lot worse. By nature, people curl into the fetal position when they feel extreme pain to protect themselves. As restraints were rarely put on prisoners, most of the scarring on all of them was on their backs, legs, and arms, while there was a limited amount on their faces and front torsos.

Alex pulled his hood over his head as someone came out of another stall. He was going to attract enough attention as it was, and he didn't need to advertise himself. The teen grabbed his soup off the countertop as he passed it and carried it over to the rest of his food. He sat down, and started eating. At the same time, he pondered his problem. He would need to rent the apartment building out relatively soon and send the first message to the gang. That could be done today, and afterwards he could check out the area of the bomb. Scorpia would be doing the same, and its agents would be preparing the area. So they couldn't pull a fast one and insert another bomb in place of the first after he took it, he would have to make the steal at the last moment.

Then there came the bomb. He would have to get rid of it somehow, but… It would be a tough move. One he could make, just difficult. He supposed he could attempt to disarm it, but it would be completely luck of the draw, not to mention he might blow himself up in the process. That likely possibility kept bringing itself up, until he realized exactly what he could do. Alex smirked, finishing the last of his bread.

Scorpia had been hired by someone (Alex had never heard the name) who wanted that alliance between France and America destroyed. Each bomb has its own style of make, and a lot of the time one can find out where the maker learned how to build it from. For instance, there will be differences in a bomb made by an army trooper from Afghanistan than one from China. The plan was for the bomb to be made to look like a French one, as the cameras situated in the monument where the building was to be would clearly state. In the case no one was able to pick up on that, the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France to America, would still be blown up. Several other hints would be dropped before and after, all meant to draw the conclusion that the ally-ship had ended. Before France could protest the point, the French embassy in America would be blown up shortly afterward, killing the ambassador inside. Even as protests were made, denying claim to these acts, other things would be happening as they tried to come to a conclusion about what would be going on. However, people would riot, and, according to plan, the countries would at least no longer be allies. At the worst, they would be at war.

That was what Alex had to stop before anything went wrong beyond repair. Even if he and the others came forward and explained the situation, it would still be hard to believe, and there would be, after all, the public to attend to. In America at least, the public ran almost everything without even really trying. Besides, just how reliable were the victims of a compound camp? They could be double agents, or mistaken, or hallucinating from their torture.

Yeah, this was going to go great.

* * *

><p>He dropped a third of his cash by renting out the room, but he hoped it would be worth it. This side plan Alex had tentatively brought up, knowing it would be hard to get through to the others. It wasn't at all related to the rest of the plan, but Alex needed to do it. To his luck, several of the soldiers sided with him as soon as he explained his full intentions. The agents, having the same work as he, agreed. The remaining people, although irked he would be spending other time for something else, ended up agreeing. They could see where he was going with it and how it was necessary for him to do. One woman, a mother, protested strongly against it once she knew what the end result would be. But he begged and pleaded, and she was forced to go along with it.<p>

Alex had to snicker slightly at the memory of her as he opened the door. She, Anders, had gotten it down pat in a just a few hand signals- "The only good thing about being in a torture compound is that I'm not having my period during any of this**." Of course, the guys would have all opted out of that part of the conversation while the women discussed it, but as they were all in the same area and could clearly see each other, it was a bit difficult, as they needed to pay attention in case the conversation turned to something they needed to hear.

While he'd had the private space to do it, he had put on a simple disguise to stop any cameras or people from recognizing him. A scarf had been thrown around his mouth and nose, covering the two scars on his cheek, and a low hood to cover the rest. In the rain and cold, it wasn't conspicuous. Having returned back to the Panera's, as it was close to the building with the room, he had ordered some more food. Scorpia wasn't all that meticulous about feeding their captives, and some hours had passed. He was satisfied, having accomplished part of his job by renting out the building and sending the message. He sighed, and leaned back and closed his eyes for a moment. He heard a couple nearby laughing as the husband told a joke. The party they were entertaining laughed along, cheered by his good humor. On the other side of the divider Alex leaned his head on, a girl he had seen on the way back with his soup was furiously typing something. From her age, the time of year, and how much coffee she was drinking, he guessed she was studying for an end of the year test, or typing out something big for her grade. Whatever it was, she'd been up for a while doing it. A trio was sitting by the door in silence. One was reading a book and savoring hot chocolate, while the second typed and the third slept, snoring loudly. Occasionally the other two friends would snicker, and glance at their friend, obviously holding back from waking him so they could use this instant against him later.

A teenager sat down near him, and he tensed for a fight, letting his eyes crack open a slit to give the appearance of sleep. He saw the teen, though, and it was obvious he was just getting out of the rain that had started coming down. From the way he was glancing at his watch, he probably was waiting for someone to pick him up. Alex forced himself to relax, calming his breathing down from its harsh rate and his heartbeat down from its erratic pace. He repeated in his mind like a mantra, It's just a teenager, not an assassin. He had just managed to somewhat calm himself when the person next to the divider spilled her coffee with a yelp. His eyes shot open in panic. Someone from the table with the couple and their friends clapped their hands together unexpectedly, and his leg twitched. The snoring person gave a particularly loud one, startling the rest of the people inside the building. Some laughed at their surprise, while others shook their heads in annoyance.

Alex grabbed his tray, and hurried over to the bins. Any crumbs were dropped off into the trash, and the bowl, tray, and cup went on the top bit with the other dishes from other people. The college girl hadn't even had time to finish getting her napkins to clean up the coffee mess before Alex was out the door.

He took a deep breath of the air, moist from all the rain fall that had started dumping down from the clouds. Then he started walking.

* * *

><p>*Interesting Fact Time! In the battle of Normandy (WWII), this same tactic was used. The soldiers who were going in usually would train, eat, and sleep together with only that group. Sometimes they would even come from the same town, and have grown up with each other. This was because the people in charge felt it would be less likely for people to back out if they knew everyone else well. Who wants to back down in front of a good friend or someone who they don't like? Thank you for joining me on Interesting Fact Time.<p>

**It's true, girls! If we all get tortured, chances are we won't have our periods! (I AM NOT SUGGESTING ANYTHING SERIOUSLY.) This is because the body functions are going to supply all their resources and energy towards getting the wounds and any infections mended so that the body will survive, and won't want to put much toward... uh… making babies. (Awkward…) Ahem. Moving on now.

I know, there was no one from Castle in here. But the next chapter won't be from Alex's perspective, and Ben will… still be thinking he's dead… (Sorry Ben! I didn't mean to punish you, really!)


	3. Chapter 2

The promised chapter arrives! This one's from the Castle team's perspective. Oh, I'm sorry, _Beckett's_ team. Plus Castle. Alright, I lied a bit. So this one isn't going to be _just_ them, but that's because I had to add in a bit from Alex's perspective so that the next chapter would be all theirs (I really want that one done from their perspective).

Hint as to what's going on: Everything that has happened was either because of or for Ben. He just didn't know it.

* * *

><p>An officer dropped by Beckett's desk while Castle was refilling all the coffees, to the relief of his friends. They exchanged a few words, and Beckett nodded, and walked into the captain's office. They exchanged words for a few minutes before Beckett came back out. Castle returned, raising a questioning eyebrow. "What was that about?"<p>

"We've got a case," Beckett announced, and the other three lit up. "Ryan, keep working on the paperwork." One face fell. "Oh come on, it's almost done."

"Where's the body?" Esposito asked, grabbing his jacket.

"No body. Sit." Beckett quirked her finger, and the men pushed their chairs over to listen. "Alright," she said more quietly, "we've got a leak in one of the mafias downtown. One of them has sent in a report that they have a murder request. Someone's got a person they need dead, and they're hiring this mafia for it. Now, our job is to stop the murder from taking place."

"Can't we just arrest whoever sent in the message? Do they have a name?" Esposito asked.

"No. It was a message sent by computer. They also don't know who the target is yet. When they wanted the person dead, they were going to send the victim's name and picture. Neither has happened yet, but they have sent in the money."

"That's weird," Ryan put in. Beckett shot him a look, and he muttered, "Um, I figured once I finished with all the paperwork, I'd, y'know, help with the case…"

She ignored him. "Before the person calls back in, we need to find out who the person that sent the message is. We're being sent the files on what the case has gathered so far, and they're passing access to the mafia's computer main frame over to us. The officers in charge already had hacked in by the time they realized this would go up to the homicide department. And we need to do this without tipping the mafia off to knowing about their snitch. The original officers and the DA will be after us if we cause a ruckus there."

Ryan pushed his chair away, but it fell short. Esposito reached out and kicked the chair over to his spot, and then stood and pushed his chair back to its spot before dropping back into it. Ryan went after his stack of paperwork with a moan, and Esposito turned to searching through the files. Beckett did the same, and Castle pretended to be interested in their work.

"Castle, when does Alexis get home from school?" Beckett asked, getting annoyed with him leaning over her shoulder.

"Around four thirty. Why?"

Beckett pointed at the clock on the computer. Castle grabbed his jacket with an 'eep!' expression on his face, turned around and ran backwards for a moment to give them all a wave, and then turned back around to get into the elevator right before it closed as someone else exited. The person looked back at them, and then shook their head. The elevator descended, and Castle left to go deal with his own stack of papers to sign.

When he returned at eight in the morning, two of them didn't seem to have left. Esposito was already back in, and Beckett, of course, had been there before anyone. Ryan came in thirty minutes after, yawning like the rest of them. It was still obvious as Castle came in. He dropped into his chair. "What'd I miss?" he asked, conveying all the excitement of a six-year old asking for a candy bar.

"Nothing more exciting than our epic fight scene, where I kicked in the door," Esposito said with a grin.

Ryan continued it. "And then you should've seen Beckett and I run in and take the scum bag down at his computer. I completely knocked him out and Beckett went-"

"-and found out who the victim was going to be on the computer, and found out traces from the computer that will bin some of the gang people for life," Esposito finished. The two grinned and exchanged high fives. Castle pouted, somehow pulling it off at his age.

Beckett raised an eyebrow at the other two. "Uh huh," she said in a tone between amused and annoyed. She turned back to Castle and stated, "You didn't miss anything." Castle smiled.

"So then what _have_ you got?" he asked. "Unless you spent the whole night wasting away..."

"Pretty close," Ryan muttered.

"We're tracing back the email. It was encrypted pretty well, so we're trying to find the trail and follow it back to-"

"Got it!" Esposito said. "Well, sorta. I found the server that it was sent from, but as I'm looking at it, it looks like an old model. The technology used to send it was probably what gave us trouble. Anyway, I'm searching for where the computer is now, and…" He trilled off the last bit for dramatic effect, and when his search ended with a building code, he made a binging noise. "It's owned by the Rent-A-Space company, which owns several buildings and rents out rooms or floors to anyone who needs them. The rooms have basic furniture and provide one computer."

"Find out who rented the room or floor on the building that computer's in," Beckett said, walking over to lean over his shoulder. He made a pointed grunting sound, and she leaned back.

"Got an address for the building, but it doesn't look like I can find a room or floor," Esposito replied a few moments later. "Better than nothing, eh? Besides, if the company lets us in, we can just manually search all the computers. We'll have to do it while the person's out, obviously."

Beckett nodded. "Ryan, Castle, we're going on a stake out of the place. Espo, stay, get the warrant and see if you can find a floor or room."

Esposito grimaced as Ryan grinned, hopping up from his seat. Castle and he tailed Beckett out to the elevator like little puppies, which Esposito snickered at. At least he would be doing something before and after he got the warrant. They'd be sitting in a car for several hours until then.

* * *

><p>"Maybe Esposito got it lucky…" Ryan muttered from the passenger's seat. Beckett, of course, had been driving, and Castle had gotten stuck in the back. Now he was writing in a notebook, taking notes on the stakeout that made absolutely no sense to either of the officers when they leaned over to try to read it. His head was bent in between in the two front seats, with his legs perched up on the raised center bit and his notebook resting on it. Several times, because of his close proximity to their arms, Beckett and Ryan had almost smacked him in the face when trying to reach for their coffee. Ryan clipped him once, and went to lengths to avoid it a second time, even after Beckett dryly suggested he should probably lean back.<p>

"If you want, we can call him down and send you up to deal with the warrants and computer searching," Beckett easily said.

"No, no, I'm good," Ryan said, quickly backtracking. Beckett gave an amused 'mmhmm' sound, and went back to looking out her window at the building. They had spoken to the company, who had agreed to let them in without a warrant, but they could only look through the computers with one. Esposito was almost done with that, luckily for them. Upon suggestion, which they had agreed to, the three of them were waiting until the official closing time, when the cleaners would go through and tidy up. A few people refused the offer of cleaners, however, and the man they spoke to said he thought they probably slept in the rooms and floors they rented. The man had also continued to ramble on, and the trio had been stuck inside the office for the next hour when he entered into a depressing conversation about how his mother had died because his parents hadn't cleaned their house well enough and his mom had gotten sick from bacteria on the floor. Then he had managed to connect that to how he had recently developed a case of bad asthma, and was having trouble with his marriage because he was snoring too loudly, and his wife was forced to sleep downstairs on the couch so she could sleep.

Through all their persuading powers, they were unable to escape his talking grasp. At least by the time they had gotten out, they didn't have much more time to wait.

"Alright, everyone who has other places to be should be gone by now," Ryan alerted them. "Now's as good a time as any to go in and take a look around."

Beckett didn't respond for a moment, before saying, "We'll give it a moment. Let anyone remaining clear out if they were late." She glanced down at Castle. "What can you possibly be taking notes on about us sitting in a car, Castle?"

"Well, did you know that you insistently tap the door knob, or that whenever you take a sip of coffee you never look at it and look instead at the door of the place you're watching? And Ryan glances at his watch every five minutes, unless you happen to be talking, in which case it's lengthened to seven minutes. In between that, you lean your head back on the seat like you're trying to go to sleep twice before you check it again. And-"

"Okay, creepy watcher," Ryan said, waving off the rest of his sentence. "I think we're done there on that topic."

All three jumped, and Castle let out a small surprised sound that was a mix between a squeak and a yelp, as someone rapped lightly on their roof. "If you're waiting for everyone to get out, there's someone on the second floor who sleeps in there. But he has to leave for half an hour every day to get his food. No refrigerator."

"Holy crap!" Castle was saying at the same time, covering up the person's first few words. He leaned out to be able to see from behind Ryan's body. Beckett and he were also turned towards the new person in the street.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Beckett asked him. Even though the darkness covered any features of his, by his height, voice, build, and posture he seemed to be a teenager.

"Who am I as in literally, or who am I as in who am I in reliability?"

"Both, actually."

"Well, I live in one of the other rooms in the building. I couldn't help but notice you three had been parked out here for an awful while, and happened to catch a glimpse of your conversation with the tenant. Sorry about that bit of eavesdropping, but it really was an accident. Anyway, do you know when you'll be done so I know when I can get back inside?"

"No, we don't," Beckett replied. "What's your name?" she asked, calling out the last bit as he straightened up, as if to stretch his back. Castle leaned back as well, looking out the window for him.

"He's gone," he murmured. The mystery in his voice vanished, and said excitedly, "Dude, that was cool!"

"And weird… Come on, let's look in at the building." She opened the car, taking a look around for the kid again. Wherever he had gone, it wasn't in her line of sight, and she walked toward the building.

* * *

><p>Any bystanders would completely agree with saying that Esposito had jumped on his phone the minute it had rung. "Esposito!"<p>

"From the server name you have us, we tracked down the computer," Beckett said. "However the person sent the message, they didn't do it using the main equipment already on the computer. We can't find it anywhere on here."

"Can we take it back to the department and have someone search the whole memory thingie?" Castle asked in the background. "It might say the programs that were used last somewhere." As soon as mentioned this, footsteps that were probably Ryan's went somewhere and he typed something into a computer, checking for any immediate results on Castle's theory. From his silence, it could be guessed there was no positive answer.

Beckett pulled the phone away from her mouth so she wasn't speaking directly into Esposito's ear, and said to the other two, "No, because then we'll have their computer, and they'll just have to get access to a different one. They'll panic if they realize we're on to them." Her voice became louder when she said, "Can you monitor everything this computer does?"

"Yup." He was already typing in the request to his own computer before the question was completely finished. "Anything else you find out?"

"Yeah, there's some creepy ninja kid who lives in one of the other rooms here!" Castle called from the background. "If he's not that, I'll be he's James Bond." Esposito could just imagine, in the pause, Castle narrowing his eyes dramatically and sweeping the look with a stunning gaze before saying, "Teen style." Judging from Ryan's outburst of laughter, he guessed he was right.

Beckett snorted. "Yeah, except he had a New York accent."

"Bourne, then."

"Was that it for me to do?" Esposito asked.

"Yup."

"Should I come down and switch with Ryan…?" he suggested.

The phone clicked closed on the other end, denying his request. "Damn," he muttered, and leaned on his desk in annoyance as he watched his computer screen.

* * *

><p>Alex was muttering the same word as Esposito at the same time. He was sitting in an alley across from the building whose floor he had rented out. Occasionally, a light would flicker behind curtains from the officers' flashlights, and a glimpse of movement would be caught. They had gotten to the computer, he knew that. For the fifth time, he glanced through the money he had. There was no time or cash to rent somewhere else out. He barely had enough to keep eating.<p>

To confirm his suspicions, he had dropped in on the stakeout he had seen. Badges on the belts, guns in holsters, coffee in or at hand, and bored expressions for most of them proved his theory. Stakeout team. There must've been some leak in the gang he had spoken to, because he knew he hadn't messed up on his end. This would complicate this bit of things, he knew, but it shouldn't be to an extent where it would be a problem. They didn't know that he knew, and he could just enter through the back of the building. They might have the computer monitored, but that wouldn't matter so long as he got out faster than they could get in. Besides, his plan for the bomb would probably cause ruckus down at the PD, and that might set off the stakeout and the monitoring. If he was lucky, anyway.

He settled back for a wait, and ran over the plan again in his head. Alex had been doing that the whole day, looking over any problems. They had managed to clear most of the issues back at the compound, but they also hadn't had much knowledge and intelligence to work with. They had agreed that most of the planning would be done on sight. This would be dangerous, yes, but it wasn't like there was much else for them to do.

He had the building rented with the first message sent. He had taken a glance at the Statue of Liberty today from the outside, and he was still sure his plan would work. Tomorrow he would drop in on the Scorpia team whose location the guards had oh-so-helpfully provided, under the north-west end of the Brooklyn Bridge. With his luck, they would mention something about any backup plans for the bomb if the original happened to just… oh, disappear?

After that, he had to make the call to the gang, and hope they did their job right. If they didn't, there would be another dead body.

He shook that out of his head. He needed to go survey the Scorpia now, while he had time. Then he could deal with his last mission.

* * *

><p>Sorry this one was short. I even added in Alex's scene to try and make it longer, but it didn't work all that well. If I added in him spying, it would be considerably longer (and I shouldn't give him much more than the other side's got.)<p> 


	4. Chapter 3

I thought this would be from Beckett's team's perspective, but I remembered I needed to do something over in the FFSAS, so I'll do that now. I don't own Alex Rider or Castle, but I do like this storyline I came up with, so please don't steal it. Also, please review. ^.^

I'm thinking of changing the name. Suggestions?

* * *

><p>The sergeant gave a grunt in response to the knock. Wolf, used to the sergeant's lack of vocal practice before his first cup of coffee, entered. The sergeant looked up, and using the least amount of words possible to get his point across, guessed, "Fox?"<p>

"Yeah. I know you told him to talk to the rest of us, and he hasn't. We're… kinda worried about him, Sir. I know espionage changes people, but it couldn't have changed him _that_ fast, and the Fox I knew before would've told us before about anything that had troubled him."

"Why?"

"…Sorry, can't translate that."

"Why do you think he's changed," the sergeant added on. His expression hadn't changed, and he could've been talking about golf or a funeral for all anyone knew. He always looked like that at this time, not being a morning person.

"Your guess is as good as mine."

He got a grunt in response, and figured it was time. He brought forth his offering. The sergeant eyed it.

**Five minutes later**

Eagle gave a wary glance at Wolf. "Did you have to resort to that?" he whispered. Wolf gave a half-hearted shrug. Snake looked a little worried, watching the sergeant. The two drained mugs of coffee were sitting on the desk, explaining the situation if nothing else did.

The smell of dry erase markers was in the air, and the sergeant had dragged in his legendary white board. He was scribbling on it in something that could, to a blind person or an alien, be called legible English. The whole board was almost covered even in the short time, and Wolf inwardly winced at how sore his hand would be afterwards. The mythological pointer stick was resting on a ledge attached to the board, and the sergeant kept trying to pick it up before realizing he had something else to write down. By the time he was done, two minutes later, there was more writing crammed into the board then should've been humanly possible. With a small click, the marker had its cap back on and was thrown violently at the ledge. It hit the board, and rolled off the ledge onto the floor, but the sergeant didn't notice or care as he snatched the pointer up, and with the same amount of aggression as he had thrown the marker, pointed it at 3/4s of the unit in his office. They resisted the urge to jump.

"You." He was pointing at Wolf. "Unit leader. What's your thought on what happened to your teammate?"

"Something happened, and he feels guilty so he doesn't want to talk about it," Wolf quickly said, fearing murder would be imminent if he spoke at a pace that the sergeant felt was beneath him. The pointer moved on, and he seemed to deflate slightly as he breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Next." The long wand stared Eagle in the face with intimidation. He could almost hear it growling at him. "Everyone's friend. What could've possibly happened to him that would fit with what your leader has said? Keep in mind that Fox always opened up to you if one of you wanted to know before."

"…Uh…"

The pointer slapped down on his head. "Faster! Time's wasting!"

"Something happened that he was related to!"

"We've covered that! Details! Add in the details! What's the most likely possibility?"

"A mission he was in charge of went wrong?"

"Good idea! But why would he be in charge of something? I put Wolf in charge for a reason; the rest of you had no leadership qualities that had been shown in your files."

Before Eagle could be smacked again by the Pointer Stick of Myths, it turned to Snake. "Last. The psychologist. What's your assessment from your comrade's mental status?"

"PTSD, definitely. I agree with Wolf on that he's guilty."

The pointer stick went up into the air, including them all now. "And with all that, what are the possibilities?"

"Well, maybe he was caught in a battle zone and he ended up in charge, but everything went wrong?" Eagle suggested, running his words together now. "That would explain the two symptoms, I guess… It would cover all the possibilities we had, too."

"It would. Among the possibilities are also-"

The next two and a half minutes went over their heads, as they stood there with puzzled expressions. The sergeant scanned through the entire board, pointing to every individual idea and saying a few things behind each idea. The coffee overflowed into his words, and his crammed sentences slurred together and became even harder to understand. When the minutes were up, and the sergeant finally stopped, the pointer shot back over to the three of them. Only, he threw his arm out too hard, and they dropped to the floor as it was flung at their heads. It pierced the door's window, sticking straight out.

"_And that is why you must speak to Fox on this matter immediately!_" the sergeant roared. He marched past them, yanked his Pointer Stick of Myths out of the door. Glass jumped out and rained down from the spot, but he didn't notice. The door slammed closed behind him, and the rest of the window fell out. K-Unit cautiously got to their feet.

Eagle was the first to speak. "Did anyone catch the slightest bit of what he said?"

"No," the other two responded monotonously at the same time.

"Do you think he's coming back?" Wolf asked, and the same thing was repeated, only in an affirmative.

"What did you do, Wolf?" Snake asked, horrified.

"I wasn't thinking."

"You say that like it's a new thing," Eagle dryly commented. The marching of the sergeant's boots came back, and they hurriedly stepped out of the way. He was dragging something behind him, and as the door slammed open again (there was no glass left to fall out or crack for his dramatic effect anymore), they saw it was a very confused Fox.

He was unceremoniously dumped on the floor, and left to scramble to his feet as the sergeant strode around behind his desk to face them all.

"What's going on?" he murmured as he stood up to attention.

"At ease!" the sergeant yelled. Fox dropped the arm, and Wolf could see out of the corner of his eye that he looked nervous. "The four of you have the rest of the day off, but by God, if I find anyone crying, you will be on the shooting range tomorrow, and you will be the targets! _Out_!"

Then he dropped into his chair, and promptly went back to his paperwork, which he had been doing before Wolf had come in.

They warily stepped out, waiting for another explosion.

"And take the mugs with you!"

Eagle scurried back and picked them up.

* * *

><p>After dropping off the mugs at the kitchen, the unit started back towards their cabin. "What happened to the window?" Fox asked.<p>

"Pointer stick," the others responded.

"Oh. And who gave him coffee?"

"Wolf."

"Why?"

Wolf took two long strides forward, and spun around to halt in front of the other three. He met Fox's eyes, and glared. "Why do you think?" he snapped. He whipped back around, and stomped to the cabin door. It was flung open, and he vanished inside. Snake blew out a breath, a mix between exasperation and frustration, and followed him. Eagle gave Fox a look that was unusually serious for him, and then turned and followed the first two. Fox was left standing on his own, even more confused that before when the sergeant had dragged him across half the camp.

Slowly, he walked to the cabin door and opened it. Wolf was lying on his bed, staring holes into the ceiling. Snake sat on the edge of his, doing the same to the floor. Eagle looked to be asleep, facing the wall with his back to the rest of them. He walked past them all to his bed on the far end, as if all of them were mines he might set off if he got too close.

Half an hour later, when he knew they were using the Silent Treatment to get something out of him, he finally spoke. "This isn't working. What do you want me to say? What was I supposed to do? Give me some context."

Wolf swung his legs off the bed and again met Fox's gaze. "We work as a unit, and we function to the best of our abilities. That's why we're here, in the 'elite' forces." Fox still looked befuddled, until Wolf said his next sentence. "That doesn't work if you don't tell us what the hell happened!"

Now, his expression went blank, except for the anger burning in his eyes. His voice dropped to a hiss. "I'm _not_ going to talk about that."

Eagle, who had never fooled anyone in thinking he was sleeping, fell onto the ground as he flipped over to look at Fox. He was still able to pull it off, however, and he landed on his butt, glaring a challenge up at Fox. Snake was shaking his head slightly, not wanting to get involved. Yes, he needed to talk, but this was not the way to do it.

"Why not?" Eagle demanded. "We don't have the right to know?"

"As a matter of fact, no." The only person in the group who had never lost their temper was doing so now. And it wasn't going to end well. "It's my business, and someone else's, and frankly I wouldn't like to discuss it again, much less think about it. Why can't any of you respect that?"

Snake didn't mention that he hadn't spoken yet, being the only person who saw how far off the deep end this all was going. His head dropped into his hands, and he uttered a low groan even as more voices started talking.

"Because withholding secrets can be deadly!" Wolf yelled. Fox stood, and for a moment he looked like he was going to yell something back. Wolf was standing almost before he was, but the other two weren't moving. Eagle looked prepared to stop a fight.

Fox stiffened as Wolf's sentence finished, and he emanated a cold air. After two more silent moments, he walked over Eagle's legs, and past Wolf as if everything were normal. The only thing that betrayed his rage was the loudness of the slamming door as he shut it behind himself.

Wolf remained standing, hands clenched. Quietly, Snake said, "That was not the way to do it."

Softly, as he dropped back down to his bed, the unit leader replied, "There was no right way to do it."

Eagle snorted. "If there was, going to the sergeant certainly wasn't involved in it." Wolf shot him a glare, and the man simply held up his hands. 'Just saying', they said.

Snake shook his head. "We shouldn't have pushed him to telling us. He needed to in his own free will. We give him every reason _not_ to tell us by acting like this. When we all fight, we divide the unit even worse."

Wolf didn't retort, to his surprise. Instead, he let out a resigned sigh. "Obviously, that didn't work. If we did this from your way, what would we do next? But if you say we wait, I'm going to scream."

"I really don't want you to scream," Eagle muttered.

"I'm not," Snake replied, to the relief of all. "Actually, we'll have to later-"

Wolf opened his mouth to protest, and Eagle yelled, "Don't scream!"

As Wolf mangled their comrade with a simple gaze, Snake finished his sentence. "But for the meantime, you need to go apologize."

"… You're joking."

"No. Go apologize."

"You two were involved!"

"Eagle was barely involved, and I never even said anything. Also, if we all go up, he'll think we're cornering him. And if we have to chase him across the whole camp… that would just be weird, and would definitely not solve this. Therefore, you have to go apologize." When the glare was redirected from Eagle to him, he shrugged and said, "Hey, you asked what I would say we should do now. That's what I think."

Muttering, Wolf stomped out of the cabin.

* * *

><p>Fox departed the cabin in haste. He was to the edge of the tree line within a minute, and was out of sight range within the next two. Knowing that eventually one of them would come looking, he grabbed a nearby tree limb and hauled himself up. The rest of the unit knew about his habit of tree climbing, but that didn't make it any easier to find him. Try looking up into every tree in Brecon Beacons when looking for someone and you would be out looking for an awful long time.<p>

About thirty feet up into the tree, he came to a forked spot, and settled down, one leg dropped towards the ground, and the other one bent in front of him. One arm hugged the knee, and the other gripped a tree branch sticking out next to him to make sure he didn't fall. Falling would make this a really bad day, and he had a feeling he would go mad if he were pestered into telling his unit about what had happened if there were no way to escape them in the medical ward. No to mention explaining he had fallen out of a tree would be humiliating. Especially if he broke his neck while doing it.

He glanced back in the direction of the cabin, which he could more or less see through the trees. Actually, it was more like he could see a small smidge of the roof. Still, he didn't think anyone had come after him yet. It had been wrong to explode on all of them, when it had most likely been mainly Wolf's fault, but it had also been wrong for them to try and prod into his business.

Ben winced. His departure had been because, even though he had been yelling it out of anger, Wolf had been right about the last thing he said. Secrets were dangerous in the field when they had something to do with their business, and could be deadly if not handled right. Alex had proved that. He'd had a secret, a dirty one, and it was something Fox _knew_ he should've picked up on now that he had time to look back on it. It was so obvious he wanted to hit his past self for not seeing it. As that was impossible, he had to settle for mauling target practice sheets.

The last time he had seen Alex, before everything had gone downhill, he had just about given everything away. But it had taken him a long time to finally admit that it was a problem, despite how much the teen tried to cover and smother it. By the time he had admitted it to himself and aloud to Ben, things had already gone underway on someone else's end, and it was too late. Ben knew he should be dead. He should be dead if only his partner had been able to find his fault faster. No, he wasn't blaming him. Alex had just been a teenager, despite all he had been pushed to.

And now Ben was doing the same thing. They worked in terrorism at the FFSAS, for God's sake! Of course his secret would become a problem. From partner to partner, Alex's dirty secret had been given to Ben, and now the young spy's need for everything to be okay when it wasn't had become the elder's as well. He should've found some way to tell them earlier, but the last thing he wanted to do was go over everything that had happened with Alex again. He'd done his best to forget it, and when that hadn't worked, to hide it from plain view.

So of course, who was there to point out his fault? Who was there to point out that he had made a big screw-up?

That's right, his unit. The guys he depended on the most out of anyone else in the world. Oh, and he had just left in a big argument because he had been at fault.

Damn, he and Alex must be the smartest people ever to exist.

There was a soft thump from below. Fox cocked his head to one side and let out a quiet sigh. Not only could he apparently not solve his problems, other people were solving them _for_ him. He really was getting all the traits passed down from his partner, wasn't he?

He didn't have to look down to know it was Wolf leaning against the tree, but he did it anyway. He had his arms crossed over his chest, as gruffly as he did almost everything, and was looking anywhere but up. That didn't sound too hard, but Wolf was making it seem exceedingly so.

Fox looked back up to normal eye level. The unit leader, despite his tough manner, had a strange sense of loyalty to his unit. It was almost like the other three were his kids (and Eagle certainly acted like one). As most any mother or father could, he had the ability to search any of them out at any given moment, and know where their thought lines were. He expected only the best of them, as he always said, but it was more like he expected only the best so long as they were doing their best plus ten percent. It wasn't like he wouldn't give them a hand when they needed one, however, and Fox had a feeling that the sergeant had picked out the four best people to put on any one team, with the best leader. Only someone like that would do the things he had or would do.

There had been the time Eagle, still learning the basics of the shooting range, had almost taken of Snake's head. Eagle had been the worst shot of anyone who had been recruited, and had barely made it in because of that one error in his file. That was back when they had just been together for a few weeks, and with a simple but firm shove back, both men were separated from each other after Snake tried to do something along the lines of strangling Eagle. The three of them had been almost at the end of their time at the range, and afterwards Wolf had dragged them away from dinner early and spoken to them all. Fox could still remember what he had said, down to the letter, and afterwards some things had significantly improved, among them Eagle's shooting and their compatibility with each other as a unit.

And of course, there had also been Cub. The unit had agreed the minute they heard he was coming they had to get the kid out. Whatever trouble he was in, sending someone to Brecon Beacons was no way to deal with it. Someone, obviously, had to give the kid hell until he managed to get taken out. It wasn't like anyone was going to listen to the unit he got dumped with. At first, the obvious choice had been Snake, as chances were they would be somewhat reluctant to send off one of the best medics in the FFSAS (his secret was that he scared everyone into working with him, and he really was good at the medical field). Wolf had shot that down, however, saying that he had to take the blame no matter what because he was in charge of Snake and the other two if they got involved. He had gone to the extent of banning them from talking to the kid, in the case the teen figured out what they were trying to do and ratted them out. Alas, the kid played it coolly, and evaded their attempts. Wolf had been moments away from being binned, and that was the only moment when his 'kids' caught him off guard. They flooded the offices, each one claiming complete responsibility for the acts against the teenager. After all, why would Wolf of all people do it? He had a great career in front of him. Wolf had given them all one of his incredibly rare, proud smiles shortly after he realized what they had done for him.

Still, as often as he could surprise them to the point of where they 'knew' they would not be surprised the next time, he always did. Now was not an exception. "Fox…?" he called up.

"Yeah. Look-"

"Sorry."

Fox blanched. … Maybe Snake had threatened to murder him? Strap him down in the medical ward the next time he was injured?

"I shouldn't have called you out on… whatever."

Fox was still gaping when he added, "Yes, Snake did push me out here before you ask for a thermometer." He gave a small chuckle, which must have made Wolf assume it was okay to start asking for things now. "Hey, can you come down? It's weird to be talking to a bunch of trees."

"Sorry if I land on you."

"Then don't!"

A few moments later, and Fox dropped down beside him. Before Wolf could say anything else, Fox jumped in. It was now or never. He knew he would back out if he didn't do tell it now. "It was my partner." His voice was quiet. Wolf stopped any attempts at communication from his end. "You all were right," he said with a humorless laugh. "I really should've told you before. This wasn't something I should've kept quiet about. It is a dangerous thing to not say." He paused, and then called out, "Hey, you two stalkers. At least get out here so you don't have to keep hiding in the trees."

The two slunk guiltily out.

"Alright, I guess you want the explanation now?"

Eagle was ever blunt, and he wasn't making a change. "Dude, the sergeant just gave us the whole day off. What the hell did you think we were planning on doing? Jump in the swimming pool?"

"Let's get back to the cabin first. It'll be more comfortable there," Snake said, and he led the way back through the trees.

* * *

><p>I thought to myself, I'm doing this chapter, I should tell them what's going on. And then I realized how long it was getting and thought… What if I <em>don't<em>? Mwahaha… And so you have to wait. ^^ At least it was a longer chapter than last time. Hope it makes up for that.


	5. Chapter 4

Sorry about being mean the last chapter… NOT. By the way, you still don't get to know. *ducks and runs* Sorry~! But I WILL tell you… later! But look at it this way! I present you with… the promised Castle chapter! Tada!

* * *

><p>Beckett stared at the computer screen. She looked a little frazzled, as Castle knew they all looked. Come on, how long could they possibly need to be on a stakeout for? It had already been two days, and there was still no sign of their sender. Esposito and Ryan were each on their second shift out by the building, and Castle and Beckett were back at the department. Montgomery* had checked in on them, having apparently alerted the mayor's office already that they were looking into the person who had sent the message. The FBI was leaning in close on the case, ready to jump in the moment anything that they could use to take the gang down on showed up. None of the agents were actually inside the police department's building yet, but they were making regular calls.<p>

Castle leaned around, peering at the back of the computer, as if interested in the logo. Beckett looked at him. "What," she said, putting a space between it and the next words "are you doing?"

He leaned back. "Just checking to make sure there weren't any holes coming out of the back of it. You're in the clear for holes!" He gave two thumbs up while she rolled her eyes. Becoming a bit more serious, he said, "Isn't there any other way to find out who sent the message then just tracking down the trail from what it left?"

Beckett shrugged. "Unless we want to go talk to the gang and politely ask if they know, then no, there aren't any other ways. If you want to shoot out a random theory, go for it. I'm actually in the mood right now."

"Oh, now you know I'm going to go overboard." Castle grinned, but then fell back into his story telling mode with a soft tone of voice and expression, used to lure any listeners in. "He's the person you see at the nearby Radio Shack or other computer store, always asking questions about how things operate. He's interested in the electronics of things, and knows how they all work. He knows much more than the average person you meet on the street, and he knows it. That's what he does. He knows. It's a simple as that. And yet… There's something he doesn't know. He doesn't know people. He doesn't know how they talk, or act, or think, or feel. All he knows is that however they do it, he doesn't do it the same way. He's not the same. Many times as he tried, looking through everything he knows, as he searches to find out just how they work, and why they're so different from he. But he can't.

"One day, another person comes in to the store. Maybe it's a mother looking for her daughter's birthday present, and knows she's into phones. Or it could be the local hacker, who's been stealing everyone's money right out from under them. And he thinks, why are they here? They aren't here for the reason I'm here. So he follows the woman or hacker, looking for clues about them. Something happens on their way home, as they walk, oblivious to their follower. Could be a car hits them, but doesn't stop to see if they're alright. Or a mugger comes and stabs them to death in front of him, and steals their money without calling an ambulance. Whatever it is, it sets him off. Computers never directly attack each other, so why do these creatures so alike himself?

"He wants to try. It's his only hint. And so he chooses a victim, and follows them the same way he did the first person. But this one he attacks before they ever get home. As meticulous as any fluent coding for a computer, he cleans up any evidence that could point things to him. But he realizes, that wasn't the right thing to do. It's not his morals that say that. Computers _do_ attack each other, he realizes, but they never do it personally. Instead, they send something else, a pawn, to do the work for them. Through whatever means, he finds his pawns. And he chooses his target, making sure he can watch as his scene plays out. He sends a message to the pawns, using the method of which he knows more than anything. He revels in the pause before sending in the message."

He paused.

Beckett raised an eyebrow. "You know that if he were really as good as you just made him out to be then he wouldn't have left a trail for us to find, right?"

Castle shrugged. "Yeah, that was the problem I just came up with…"

"Huh."

Alarms blared. Beckett stood up, reaching for her gun, while Castle looked wildly around. Other officers were doing the same, and looking for the source. Montgomery came out of his office and yelled, phone in his hand, "There's someone with a bomb downstairs! Move outside! Now!"

Beckett dropped her hand from her holster, and hurried after Montgomery before he could get far. Castle wasn't far behind her. "Sir, _what's_ going on?" she demanded.

Montgomery glanced at them. "There's a kid downstairs who is saying someone strapped a bomb on him, and that he had to come here or he would kill him. A letter was sent with the teen demanding orders. Have you and your team gotten anywhere on your case?"

"Um, sir? Bomb threat?" Beckett prompted.

Montgomery gave her a very sane look. "If you're still waiting on the stakeout, then on your off time you can help on this case."

"Ah. Okay."

* * *

><p>The street was filled with police officers milling around, while barriers had been set up on the side walk and in the way of traffic to prevent anyone from coming that way. Police tape was over everything. Montgomery and some of the other up-there officers were standing the closest to the building they were allowed (technically fifty yards, but no one was listening and they were instead only twenty-five yards away), and talking in hushed tones. The bomb squad were the only ones remaining in the building, and occasionally through the windows the officers could see flashes of movement.<p>

Beckett's phone rang, and she picked it up. "Yeah?"

"Is there really a bomb in the building?" Ryan demanded.

"Yeah. Someone grabbed a kid off the street, stuck a bomb on him, and sent the kid in. They're diffusing it now."

"Alright, we're coming back-"

"No, you're not," she ordered. "There's nothing to do here right now. You'll be of more use there than here. The only ones who can do anything are already doing it. Have you two got anything right now?"

"Nah, nothing's happened. Same as before. Does it look like things are going to work out alright over there?" Ryan leaned away from the phone, and Esposito muttered something to him. The two had a brief conversation, and he came back on. "Okay, turns out we do have something. Although that first guy we spoke to said they don't have any cameras, it turns out that they do. They were just installed without the guy knowing. Don't know how that happened, but the guy was pretty out of it. So anyway, the guy who's on duty right now-someone else-gave us access to the camera and we got a picture of him. Well, Esposito got it. Just now. Anyway, want us to bring it over?"

"You really want an excuse to get off the stakeout, don't you?"

"Of course no-… Yeah." Ryan sighed, knowing he had failed in faking it.

Beckett rolled her eyes. "Fine, bring it back. We can track him down faster that way instead of just waiting around." She glanced over at the building. Montgomery tapped her shoulder as she closed the phone. "Sir?"

"The rest of us wanted to ask you if you wouldn't mind talking to the hostage," he said. "Since the rest of the guys on duty are… rougher interrogators? Well, can't turn their 'rough' off, shall we say," he added on when Beckett gave him a look. "We need someone more on the mothering side to talk to him."

"Sure, it's not like we're doing anything important. Ryan and Esposito said they're heading back here, since they got a photo of him."

"Guess this makes up for your boring last few days," Montgomery said with a shrug.

A few minutes later, one of the bomb disposers came out, helping along the teenager. A brief applause went up from the police, but as they had seen such things before, it ended quickly enough. Passing civilians strained to look over the barricades and officers, trying to see what happened. An ambulance was already waiting outside, and the bomb disposer led the kid to it. The officers made a path with barely a discussion, and hands went out to ruffle the teen's hair or pat the bomb disposer on the back.

Castle frowned. Beckett glanced over at him as they made their way through the crowd to get to the ambulance. "What is it?" she asked with a sigh, knowing that another of his crazy theories had just come up. The crowd didn't want or care for the two to get through, and Beckett was leading the way in pushing past.

"Nothing, it's just… Every time someone pats the kid or ruffles his hair, he flinches. If you look, he's even leaning away from the bomb crew guy. That's a bit odd."

"Castle, he just had a bomb strapped to him."

"He's not upset by the crowd itself; it's the touch of people that's bothering him. I don't think that's from the bomb."

Beckett frowned, and watched the teen a little closer. They arrived at the ambulance a minute after the first two did, and an ME was tending to him when they got there. The kid looked fine, but they were treating him for shock. Beckett and Castle waited off to the side while the ME finished up, and then moved away. He'd left him with a blanket on his shoulders while he sat on the edge of the ambulance, but almost immediately it was moved aside. The teen pulled up his legs, resting his forearms on them. He caught sight of the two, and raised an eyebrow.

Taking the cue, Beckett walked up with a writer in tow. She crouched in front of him so that she was a little below his eye level. "Hi, I'm Detective Beckett." She held up a badge.

He raised an eyebrow. "That says 'Homicide'."

"Yeah. The rest of the guys aren't…" She glanced around, as the nearby guys looked over.

"Cuddly and friendly?"

Beckett gave him a dry look. Castle snickered. "Yeah."

"Not saying you are, just…"

"Right." Moving off that topic, she said, "Do you mind if I ask you questions about what happened?"

"Shoot." He glanced down at her gun, which was in view. "Not literally, please."

"Okay. Do you remember what happened?"

"A bit. I was heading home with groceries when I got smacked over the head with something. When I woke up, I had been dragged into an alley and a jacket had been thrown over my chest. When I moved it aside I saw the bomb. Whoever it was left a note that told me what to do and where to go."

"You never saw the attacker?"

"No. I didn't know what had happened until I woke up."

"Can you remember where you were at the time of the attack? That way we can correlate your story… Not that we immediately think you're lying, but it happens."

"I can give you the area, but I don't remember the exact street. I've never really paid attention to where I was before now… I usually just prefer to walk into minor things instead, like street lamps, and railings, and meters on the street. Haven't walked into a car yet, but there was a motor scooter once."

Beckett nodded. "Is there anyone who knew you took that route home? Who might've been waiting for you in particular?"

"Unless I have a stalker, no. I live alone, and I don't talk to many people."

Castle watched, silently, as the questions continued. Less and less was making sense. The teen's story was just too convenient, for one thing. For another, he seemed a bit too coherent for someone who had just had a bomb strapped to their body a few minutes before, and was now being asked to relive the experience. He was even shooting out sarcastic remarks already. The teen was gripping the edge of the ambulance, his knuckles whitening from it. Castle wouldn't have noticed it if he weren't looking for it, but the kid was also glancing at Beckett's watch, trying to read it, every time she lifted her arm and put the watch into view. Not to mention, there was also his reactions to add when he had been going through the crowd.

What was going on?

"What's your name?" Beckett asked, still in a kindly mood. Nearby officers were well aware that this would most likely be the first and last time they saw her like this. "Just for the records, and so we can contact you if need be."

"… ah…" The sound was quiet, almost lost in the din of the crowd. "Jason Brooks."

"Alright. That's all the questions I have. Do you want to go to the hospital, just to make sure your head's okay?" Beckett asked, but Jason was already shaking his head before she finished. "Then you're free to go." She stood up and stepped back, and Jason slid off the ambulance, slipping away into the crowd. The female officer glanced at her partner. "Don't say it."

"What?"

"I know you're going to say some random conspiracy theory, and I'm asking you not to."

"Just this morning-"

"I was bored. I'm not now." She turned as a new car pulled up near the barricades, and two people joined the crowd. Castle stuck his hand up in the air and waved it energetically, calling over Ryan and Esposito. They had to push and nudge themselves through the people, and finally reached the small empty crater by the ambulance. "Got the picture?"

"It's a bit odd," Ryan said, pulling out a photo, "but this is our renter of that room." He held it up into view.

Beckett took off running as soon as she saw it, and Castle was only a moment behind her. The other two exchanged a puzzled glance, and followed shortly after. Castle paused, and then wavered off from the path she had made. He didn't reappear into their sight immediately, but the ambulance sirens turned on, wailing at the officers. They made a path, expecting the ambulance to pull out, and Beckett and the other two dodged into the path and continued sprinting. Castle waved his thanks at the ME, and ran after them.

"What?" Esposito asked when they caught up. "Why're we running?"

"That was the bomb victim! The kid who sent that message was the bomb hostage!" She pulled out her phone, dialing Montgomery's number. When he answered, she yelled her explanation into the phone. He gave some response, and she said they were following him. She closed the phone a few seconds later, and called back to the other three, "We're taking two squad cars! Esposito, Ryan, take one, Castle, with me." The four split off into the defined groups, and Castle had just fallen into the car when Beckett put her foot on the peddle. He yelped and closed the door before it could be taken off by a stop sign.

"Jeez! You can't wait for me to get into the car?" he exclaimed. Esposito and Ryan, having been given no further directions other than 'Take a squad car', followed behind them.

"He couldn't have gone all that far, could he?" she muttered, glancing left and right for any sign of him. "He just left a few minutes ago."

"Alright, you look left, I look right," Castle said. "That way you can keep your eyes on the road. There!" He pointed to the left, having also been looking both ways. She swerved onto the road, and pulled up a few meters ahead of Jason, who paused now. He caught on to what was happening, and whipped around and bolted the other way. Esposito threw his car to a halt, and jumped out of it, gun aimed at the fleeing teen.

"Stop!"

With an audible annoyed hiss, Jason came to a complete halt. His stance was one of a caged animal, looking for the best way out of the situation.

Behind him, Beckett called, "Put your hands over your head!"

With anger clearly written on his face, he put his hands up, and turned to face the opposite way as Esposito walked up to him with handcuffs out. As they were put on, Beckett stated as she put away her gun, "You're under arrest for conspiracy to commit murder. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. If you cannot afford one, a lawyer will be appointed to you. Do you understand these rights as I have read them to you?"

Jason gave a compliant grunt. "Yeah, but I'm just going to point out, where exactly are you going to hold me? They haven't opened up your building yet."

Castle raised his eyebrows in an amused expression, and Beckett shot him a warning and exasperated glare. To Jason, she said, "I'm sure we'll figure something out."

* * *

><p>As promised, she found a place. Jason, having left early, didn't see the bomb disposing crew release the department's building and let everyone back in. They led him to an interrogation room, and sat him down in the chair. The four of them left him there, while they looked into his identity.<p>

"Alright, 'Jason Brooke' isn't bringing anything up in the area with a picture that matches his," Esposito reported seconds after they had all sat down at the computers.

Ryan shook his head. "His picture doesn't bring up anything either. That's weird."

Beckett looked over. "Did you search just in New York City?"

"One moment…" Ryan trailed off as he extended the search. "No one in the country…" His eyes widened. "Ah. Got a hit. You won't believe where."

"I'm not guessing."

"Not going to ask. Europe. England, to be exact. He's British." He turned the computer around so she could see. "Alex Rider, sixteen, and not American. In fact, he shouldn't even be here right now. School's in."

Castle pointed at a spot on the file. "Unless he's here for a specialized hospital visit. Look at that record… Damn, he moves fast for a sickly kid. Doesn't look all that bad off either. Although he looks like he was beat up…"

Esposito, having pulled the file up on his own computer, skimmed through. "Damn. He's been in the hospital for most of the past two years. Missed a lot of school for it, but his grade isn't suffering much from it. He knows several languages, which is probably what's keeping it up, but still a smart kid."

"Smart kid who knew how to fake a New Yorker accent fluently, shouldn't be anywhere near here, and just happened to get a bomb strapped to him. Oh, and sent a message out that he needed someone killed. Suspicious, much?" Beckett shook her head. "Find out how reliable those hospital records are. I've got a feeling he was nowhere near the hospital at those times. Look into how he got over here, and when. Plane, ship, whatever. There's a record of it."

Her phone rang. "Beckett."

"_Detective Kate Beckett of the New York City Police Department?_"

"Yeah. Who are you?"

"_John Crawley. I've been alerted about a file you're looking into at the moment._"

Beckett raised an eyebrow. They had opened it less than a minute ago. That had been a seriously fast response. She gestured to the others, and pointed at the phone. 'Where's this coming from?' she mouthed.

"What about it?" she asked.

"_Why?_"

"Why are you calling?"

"_I work for MI6. It's important you answer my questions._"

Beckett's expression became doubtful. This was beginning to sound like something right out of Castle's novels. She glanced over at Ryan and Esposito, but they were shaking their heads at her. There was no way to trace the call.

"Right. If so, you need to go through the police chief first."

"_This surpasses authority. You have no clue how important this is. What do you know so far about how long he's been in New York and what he's done there?_" Crawley asked. He had a flat and emotionless voice, one that could easily belong to an agent from espionage. She put that thought aside.

"We just started looking into it, but I can't give you any information about an ongoing case."

"_You don't think I am who I say I am."_

"No," she deadpanned.

There was a silence from the other end. A phone rang in Montgomery's office, and he answered it. He exchanged a few words, looking surprised. Then he leaned out the door, and nodded to Beckett. Bewildered, she mouthed, 'He's really MI6?' Montgomery gave a hurried nod, and pointed to the phone.

"Okay," she said slowly. "We just started looking into it a minute ago. We don't know much right now."

"_Yes… My techies are telling me now that there's nothing on his transport from wherever he was to New York. They're searching the camera films now for a sign of his entry. What did you arrest him for?_" Crawley didn't sound angry that they had done so, just curious.

"He was tied to our case. We have reason to believe he sent a message to a local gang requesting that they kill someone."

Another silence came from Crawley's end. She almost thought the line had gone dead, before there was a click as the called transferred elsewhere. Another voice spoke into it. "_This is Director Hawson of the Covert Operations branch of MI6. We need you to assist us, as we have no authority on your soil._"

"Why would you need our help?" Beckett shot a glare at Castle, who was looking impatiently at the phone. He'd caught the word 'MI6' through all this, and looked like he should be bouncing up and down in his seat in excitement.

"…_You don't understand who you have in holding right now. Under no circumstances can you release him. We're sending some people over to help explain everything._"

"Anything else we should know?" Beckett asked, trying to keep the dry sarcasm out of her voice. It didn't work.

"_Yes. Don't let him near any firearms or any other kind of weapon._"

Beckett paused. "He's dangerous?"

"_It would be best to assume so. We don't know the full situation right now. The people we are sending over can further explain, but I don't feel it's safe to discuss this on the phone. Also, you _cannot_ allow it to be leaked out that he is there right now. That information could be deadly._"

"Who do we have in holding?" Beckett demanded.

"_You already know that_."

"Not his name. Who is he really?"

"… _I can't say that over the phone._" Beckett bit back a frustrated growl. "_Things will be explained soon enough. It'll take a few hours for the people to get there._"

"They're not your agents," she stated.

"_No, but they know more about the situation than we do. One of them lived through it, and the rest of them will probably come along anyway. You'll have to let them tell you about everything. Have a good day._"

The line clicked off.

"Was that really MI6?" Castle asked. _Now_ he was bouncing.

Beckett gave him a look. "Yeah. They're sending in some people who should be here in a few hours. Esposito, Ryan, delete any history of his file from our computers. We were among the first ones in, so we should be the only people who saw him enter. MI6 is ordering that nobody knows he's here but those who already do. Some of their people are looking into his arrival now, and I assume they'll let us know if they find anything."

"Want me to look anyway?" Esposito asked.

"Nothing else to do until the people arrive. Start looking. In the mean time, I need more coffee." She stood up, and a chorus of requests for mugs went with her.

* * *

><p>*I hadn't decided which captain I would go with until recently. But Tsuki wanted Montgomery, and I couldn't decide, so Montgomery it is.<p>

This one was long…


	6. Chapter 5

I think I should just disclaim most of this to my sister's End of the Road. This really turned out a lot like it... (So sorry, Tsuki, but I did just give you the credit for just about all this, right?) Seriously, if you like this, head over there and take a look.

* * *

><p>By the afternoon, five hours later, Beckett was still impatiently glancing at the elevator doors. Her fingers tapped on the desk with irritation.<p>

Castle, as always, was taking the whole thing with ease. "Somebody's impatient…" he muttered to Esposito, who gave a small laugh before Beckett glanced his way. Ryan was staring up at the ceiling, rocking back and forth in his chair.

"Hey, Ryan, you know they tell you not to rock back on your chair like that for a rea-" Esposito started, glancing over at his partner. A crash broke off in time to prove his point. "…son…" Beckett rolled her eyes. A door elsewhere opened and didn't close for another few seconds, and her attention went back to the elevator. She frowned at it, as if by her sheer will it would open to produce the mysterious people she needed to talk to.

"Alright, Castle, come with me. We're going to talk to the kid," Beckett finally said. Castle clapped, and practically bounded after her to the interrogation room. Esposito sighed as the two slipped inside, and shook his head in exasperation at Ryan.

A small cough came near him. Esposito glanced over, and waved at the man. "Hi. Lost?"

"Yeah. We're looking for Beckett's team? Homicide?" The man in front was boisterous, and seemed to have the most people-friendly attitude. There was another one near the back who looked anything but, and was glaring around distrustfully. Another man, standing behind the first but in front of the others, appeared more unnerved by what was going on and was suspicious but curious. The last was silent, blank, and watchful. Esposito almost didn't notice him standing there.

"That's us. Esposito and Ryan. The other two are elsewhere." Esposito stood, shooting a death look at Ryan, who was scrambling to his feet. "ID?"

The unfriendly man from the back spoke up. "Sorry," –he didn't sound sorry- "but we're on duty. FFSAS only allows us to give out our codenames at the time. We're K-Unit. I'm Wolf." He introduced the others as Snake, Eagle, and Fox. "Happen to know why we're here?"

"They didn't tell you?"

"No."

"Do you even know who 'they' is?"

Wolf's voice made it clear that if he ever found out, 'they' would be showing up in the obituary. "No."

"MI6."

Fox's eyes narrowed.

"We happen to have someone with us right now whose file sparked something from their end. We got a call, and said they were sending you over to explain the situation."

"And what's going on?"

"We got a call from a tip from a snitch in a gang who said they had been sent a message that they were to kill someone. We got the person, but he was nearby at the time because he said he was forced here to the department. At the time he had a bomb on him. When we searched his name, nothing came up, but his picture brought up someone from England. That set something off at MI6, and we got the call."

Wolf grunted. "And where're the other two?"

"Talking to the kid right now."

Snake raised an eyebrow. "Kid?"

* * *

><p>Beckett sat down across from the teen, while Castle leaned against the mirror behind her. She set a file down between her and him, which wasn't actually filled with any of Alex's papers. But he didn't need to know that. "Alex. Rider," she said, putting a space between the first and last names.<p>

His disinterested eyes that had been boring holes into the ceiling snapped to her. He didn't say anything, but it was obvious she had his attention.

"Shouldn't you be in school?"

No response.

She dropped the subject. "You're a smart kid. We can tell from looking at your records. So you can understand how this looks right now. When we get a picture from the building whose floor you rented-_your_ picture-, and it suddenly ties things to a bomb that was just taken into a police department, things aren't going to end well. You're sitting in a building full of angry cops who are still riled up from this morning. Not to mention detectives are probably going to be regularly coming in, each wanting information on how you contacted this gang and sent them your request. I don't care. I'm in homicide, as you already know. I want to know who you wanted dead, and why."

He didn't speak for a moment, but then said, "You can't tie me to the bomb."

"I know you were involved, and if we look in deep enough, I've not a doubt that we can find something. We'll have plenty of time, as you'll still be held for conspiracy to commit murder."

"I was _not_ involved with the bomb." He paused, considering his statement, and then added, "Well, yes, I brought it in, but I didn't mean…"

"What, it was just a _fake_ bomb? That bomb would've killed everyone inside if it had gone off!"

"I know! But it was somewhere else, in a more populated area, and it would've killed more people if it had gone off." He was about to add more, but Beckett cut in.

"So you brought it somewhere _else_ with people? How does that make a difference?"

"Because I knew the second I came in, the bomb disposers would take care of it!"

"You didn't just call the police where it was before?" Beckett pressed. "It would've been a lot less dangerous to everyone."

Alex didn't respond. He looked like he had something to say, but didn't want to.

"What are you doing here?" Beckett sighed, leaning back in her chair, and splaying her arms across the table, palms out. "Your record was fine until two years ago, when you get a series of doctors' visits. Then you come here and get involved in murder and bomb threats. And somewhere along the lines you get mixed up in MI6's business."

If he hadn't been paying attention before, he was now. His posture stiffened. "What do you know about that?" he demanded.

"We looked up your file-"

"_Who knows_?"

Beckett paused, looking puzzled. "Who knows _what_?"

"Who knows I'm here?"

Beckett frowned. "Does it matter?"

"Yes."

Something in Alex's tone made her tell. Castle, behind her, watched with interest. "My team, the captain, and at least the two people I spoke to from MI6."

"And what are they doing about it?" he pressed, desperate and anxious. His expression was frantic and begging.

"They're sending over some people, but they don't work for them," she said slowly. Alex reacted immediately, pulling back. He put his head in his hands. "What's wrong? Who are you hiding from?" He didn't respond. "What the hell is going on?"

Alex looked up. "Are they coming here? Will they arrive anytime soon?"

"Does it matter?"

"Who are they sending over?"

"I don't know. Look, just tell me what's happening- Hey!"

Alex sprung out of his chair, and dodged around Castle as he stuck out his arm to block the way. Beckett reached out to snatch him, but he moved around it and got to the door. He flung it open, and stopped, shaking his head violently at someone and waving his hand forward, like he was gesturing for someone to move back.

A gunshot rang out, and something like glass shattered.

* * *

><p>Instincts took over, and Snake crouched slightly as he heard the gunshot and telltale breaking glass of a sniper. Fox had taken a step back as soon as the kid had stepped out of the interrogation room and gestured frantically at him. Eagle was doing the same as Snake, and Wolf was dropping his arm from the position he had put it up at, protectively in front of his unit.<p>

Fox gave a small hiss beside him, and three heads turned to him immediately. His right shirt sleeve was turning red, and it spread down his arm at a steady pace. Within seconds, blood was dripping to the floor from his fingertips. Snake moved around behind him to get at the arm, and yanked out a bandage from seemingly nowhere. (His unit had long before gotten used to his unlimited supply of medical supplies he always seemed to have stuffed on his person.) He wrapped it around the spot, even as Fox tried to swat him off and run somewhere.

"Sit! We don't need you getting hit again!" Snake snapped, and Wolf and Eagle blocked the view from the windows while Snake and Fox knelt behind it with the medic tending to the injured.

Esposito yelled, "Close the blinds!" Nearby officers hurried to obey his orders, and the room's lighting dropped as the solar rays hit barriers. Everyone else, meanwhile, was either in shock, yelling at each other, or trying to protect or help Fox.

"No, not me!" he was shouting, waving them off. Wolf frowned in confusion at the word choice, until Fox pointed across the room to where he was trying to go. With the blinds closed, Wolf glanced across the room.

Two people were standing there; the teen and an adult. From how they stood, it looked at first sight like the person was simply keeping an eye on the suspect while everyone else worried about the sniper and Fox. On a second glance however, Wolf saw different. The teen was leaning heavily on a wall with his knees bent and his head dipping over his chest. One leg was trembling violently and the other a little less so. A shaking hand was holding his stomach, and it almost looked like he was going to be sick.

The man stood there, one hand a few inches over the spot where the teen's hand was, and with a jerk he drew his hand back, and red flew. The teen slid to the floor, collapsing in the fetal position on his side. The man, unnerved and uncaring, walked away as if he were simply walking down the street to the grocery store.

"Hey!" Wolf roared across the room at him, and the man glanced over his shoulder, pausing for just a second. In that time, Wolf felt something tug, and glanced down to see Fox grab his gun, and even from his position, take a shot at the man. At the same time, a metallic shine flashed, and a bloodied blade flew from the kid's hand near his stomach and to the man. He dropped immediately, not even stumbling. Even without checking, it was obvious he was dead before he had hit the ground.

Fox tried standing again, this time ripping his arms free of the people restraining him. He took a stumbling step, but then ran to the collapsed boy across the room. Snake was right behind him, and dropped to check out the fallen. "Has anyone called an ambulance yet?" he shouted, and three people called back an affirmative.

Beckett's and Wolf's teams reached the bleeding two and the medic, looking for anyway to help. Snake gave it to them, as he rolled the teenager onto his back. His face was pale, and the blood was now clearly seen as it came out between his fingers on his stomach. "Wolf, put pressure on the wound. Beckett, you and your team know where everything is around here. Grab any medical supplies you have that you can find. Eagle, help Fox."

"What do I do?" Fox demanded as Beckett's team ran off to follow his orders. Wolf, not needing any persuasion, leaned forward to press on the blood. Fox glanced down at the wound and the body it was on. The boy was unconscious and breathing roughly.

"Nothing." Snake grabbed more bandages, and threw some at Eagle, who started pressing it on Fox's arm. "I don't need you getting permanent damage to that arm because you weren't following my directions and I wasn't doing my job. Sit there and let him help. If you want to do something, stop it from bleeding. The ambulance is going to be here soon."

"But-"

Fox broke off as Snake glared at him meaningfully, and then looked back to his other patient. He joined Wolf in pressing on the wound. Beckett's team dropped more bandages, which were gratefully accepted, and morphine by Snake, who had them give Fox some of the latter. The bandages were distributed where they needed to go between the two.

The EMTs came in minutes later, and put the teenager on a stretcher to carry him out. Fox walked out on his own despite the complaints that went around him for it, but he had his own things to say. "Get the ambulance doors right in front of the police department," he ordered. Nodding at the teen, he continued, "We know there's a sniper nearby, and he'll be in plain view for several seconds otherwise. That would be a great time to finish him off."

"And you?" Snake demanded as the EMT Fox had been talking to ran off to move the ambulance closer. "Get on that elevator before it goes down. You're going to be in that ambulance." Before his teammate could object, he snapped, "_Now_." He ran off, following the stretcher, and got ahead to press the open button. The stretcher and the ones holding it went in first, followed by the rest of the EMTs and Fox. The doors closed, leaving Beckett's team and the remainder of K-Unit to take the stairs. They did so, and were on the first floor waiting by the cars when a flash of stretcher appeared in the small gap between the ambulance and the police department's doors. Fox passed through shortly after it, and then the ambulance closed its doors and turned on the siren. It pulled onto the road.

"Hey, can we go with you?" Eagle called over to Beckett's team as they started climbing into squad cars. "We took a taxi over here."

Beckett made a gesture, and Esposito and Ryan ran over to a different car while K-Unit split up to fit.

* * *

><p>It took less than five minutes to get the hospital on a twenty minute route, but the sirens did most of the work. The two squad cars tailing it had only that to do while the ambulance cleared the way.<p>

The two wounded were taken through the emergency doors, while the rest of them had to take the front entrance. Unfortunately, that meant they had no idea where the two were going to be taken. It took thirty minutes for someone to call down to sign them in, and by that time it was a miracle the lobby didn't look like a fall out zone. The three from K-Unit should have demolishing it with looks, but alas, the physical world took control, and nothing spontaneously combusted. Beckett's team harassed K-Unit during that time, trying to figure out why Fox had been shot out. The problem was K-Unit didn't know either. The detectives' guesses were as good as theirs.

As soon as they had the room number and floor, the seven of them were hurrying down the corridors to find Fox. Alex Rider, as Beckett had told K-Unit his names was, had not yet been given a room as he was currently in surgery. Fox was sitting up, pissed but awake, talking angrily to a doctor. The doctor, looking exasperated, glanced over at them as they entered. "Don't harass him," he said, and then started to leave.

"Hey!" Fox protested, but the doctor ignored him, shutting the door as he left. "I'm perfectly fine!" he tried to convince the remaining people.

"As fine as a person with a hole in their shoulder can be!" Snake shot back.

"Which is apparently quite a bit!" Fox snapped, swinging his legs over the bed. "What happened to Alex?"

"He's in surgery right now," Beckett said. "How do you know him?"

Fox hesitated. Snake narrowed his eyes, guessing the answer but not saying anything. "… How about I wait to tell you when he wakes up? Might be easier to explain that way, since I really don't get some of this myself."

"I think it's time you gave us a full run down on the entire case, with the details," Wolf stated. "We've got a lot of time until the kid comes out."

With testimony from all of them, it came out, piece by piece. Fox had a frown that deepened with each bit of information. Castle caught this. "Is any of that weird for him?"

"All of it, yeah. And you don't know who he was supposed to kill?"

"Not yet. Montgomery called while we were downstairs waiting, and said that the FBI people running the gang stuff is looking into that now. It'll take a while for them to contact their leak," Esposito explained.

"If you had to guess, who would it be?" Beckett asked.

Fox raised an eyebrow that was thoughtful, although to Wolf, it looked slightly amused too as he turned the question over in his mind. "To be completely honest… Whoever he wanted dead was someone that none of us would ever guess in a million years, but once investigated, the person would be an undercover spy or terrorist or something like that. Maybe a mobster or gang leader. Could be a maniac trying to take over the world. That last one's happened more times than you'd think, too."

"You say that like he does this often."

"Not the hiring a gang bit part, but bodies do tend to show up around him. It's not his fault, for the record, but things just tend to go wrong. It's really a long story."

"And we have a lot of time," Ryan pointed out.

"Yes, but… a _really_ long story. He'll be out of surgery and been waiting for a few hours by the time I finish. Besides, I don't know the whole thing, which is why I'm asking we wait for him to wake up before I say anything. Also, he'll take my head off-_sarcasm,_ jeez-if I say anything that should be left unsaid."

Wolf had caught on by now, and had dropped out of the argument. Eagle was suspicious, and catching on. A glance from Fox confirmed it.

Beckett glanced around at the four of them and came to a conclusion. They all knew what was going on, and none of them were going to spill. She nodded, as if going along with Fox. "Sure. Give us a call when he wakes up so we can come down and talk to him. Even if he wasn't involved, we need to clear him and move on to someone else." She nodded her head toward the door, pulling the rest of her team along with an invisible force.

When they were out of hearing range, Esposito stated, "They know what's going on."

"And they're not telling," Ryan finished. "We go through MI6?"

"We go through MI6," Beckett confirmed.

"How?" Castle asked, pointing out the obvious. "They didn't leave a number to call them by or anything."

"Which is why we're going to Montgomery first," Beckett replied. "He'll have some way to contact them, I assume. And if he doesn't, we'll find a way."


	7. Chapter 6

This chapter was short, but I finally tell what Ben told his unit! You know you wanted to know. ^^Now, I'm just going to run before you finish the chapter and start gaping at me in shock that I would do something like that to Ben…

* * *

><p>The silent quartet in the hospital room found a position and stayed there, looking confused, mournful, and thoughtful. Snake was sitting nearest to Fox, being the medic. Wolf leaned against the wall by the door, and anyone who knew him or who had trained similarly would know he was not there for convenience; it wouldn't take a second to knock out anyone threatening who came through the door. Having no other choice, Fox was confined to his hospital bed, but was sitting on top of the blanket with his legs crossed. The last, Eagle, sat on the floor, head leaning against the bed behind him.<p>

"So…" Eagle said, taking in a resigned breath and asking the question the rest of them didn't want to voice. "I assume we just met your partner?"

Fox dropped his head into his hands. The IV tugged at his arm in protest, and he shot a look at it, like that would do anything. "I don't know," he sighed. "I mean, I do. I know that's him. But… I just don't know how. By all rights, he shouldn't be… _here_." No one needed clarification to know by 'here' he wasn't talking about the hospital or New York City. "I don't know what's going on," he murmured.

"He can tell us when he wakes up," Wolf said, almost kindly. Almost.

Fox snorted, and laughed. The sudden sound startled the other three. "Wow, you made that sound like he was going to tell us whether he wanted to or not." At Wolf's expression of 'He will', Fox snorted again, shaking his head. "Wolf, Alex doesn't do _anything_ unless he wants to and he deems it worth his time. Think of him as a cat, I guess."

Wolf shook his head in annoyance. He stared at the floor, and thought. The sergeant had pulled Fox out of training that morning, saying he needed to go to New York for something. No one had told him why, but the orders were coming from high up on the scale of brass. Upon hearing that, K-Unit had stated they were going with him. There was no question involved, and the sergeant passed that up for them. The response was a bit surprising. Whoever was calling the shots said they didn't care, but Fox needed to get over to the police department and ask for Beckett's team _now_.

And so Fox had gone, with his unit coming in close behind. He had finally let them know what had been bothering him, and they weren't going to let anything happen simply because they let him out of their sight. Fox had complained a little about the mother-henning, but all three had been able to tell he was more than a little pleased about their company.

A doctor came in, knocking on the door as he did so. "You asked to be alerted when the kid came out of surgery? He's out, in room 715. I know he just had an assassination attempt on his life, so I'm going to let you see him and sit in there. Also, you should know, he's still asleep, and he won't be waking up anytime soon. Once he wakes, he'll be falling asleep and waking back up in irregular intervals."

Fox nodded. "Probably best that way. Thanks for letting us know."

The doctor nodded, and took his leave. Before the door had shut, Ben was already swinging his legs off the table and trying to stand. He winced, pressing his arm to his stomach, but none of them bothered to stop him. Even with sheer force, nothing would be able to.

* * *

><p><em>Fox glanced around the cabin nervously, as if not really believing he was actually doing this. Eagle, as always, sat on the floor, while the other two were on their beds. The story teller's fingers kept twining together and then coming apart, and he fingered his shirt sleeves as well, buying time. Several times he sighed and took a breath like he was going to start, and then backed out of it. He closed his eyes, as if pained that he couldn't find it in himself to start but also because he didn't want to recount it. Finally, he looked at his three friends, looking at him with worried eyes, and started.<em>

"_He joined MI6 two years ago. For a whole year, he worked all his missions alone. Occasionally, he had backup, but usually they were late or incompetent. He worked alone. Not to say he wanted it that way. Actually, he didn't want to work for MI6 at all, but he had talents and skills they wanted, and he was blackmailed into it. Both of his parents, his uncle, and his housekeeper were killed by a group he went up against, in that order. After his housekeeper, it was the last straw. Al had no reservations against working with them, and went into every mission like his life depended on it. To him, he had nothing to return to. It wasn't like he could sit through school again." _

_Wolf, assuming the partner had been blackmailed out of college, momentarily wondered what he had been studying before espionage. He could ask later when Fox finished. _

_He glanced around again. "To fully understand, you have to know the back story behind him. Sorry." He sighed. "On his fifth mission, he was alone. For several, actually, MI6 only became a part of the equation later, and some of them he did for other agencies. This was one of them. He got involved in Scorpia while trying to figure out something, and met Julia Rothman." Seeing the question, he nodded and said, "Yes, that was the pre-mortem Scorpia board member. Remember that threat made around the time of her death by Scorpia? He foiled it. I met him on his next mission, when he was taking down a snakehead operation. I sorta shot his godfather…" Fox gave an awkward cough. "But it turned out he killed Alex's parents. After that, his housekeeper was poisoned. She died in the hospital. They've tried several times to go after him, but each attempt has had something go wrong with it. Once, it was simply because he stepped off a curb at the moment the sniper pulled the trigger. Another time, the food they poisoned went bad before he ate it, and was thrown out._

"_Things got bad enough that MI6 acknowledged he needed someone to work with him. Unfortunately, everyone who had worked with him before had either gotten killed or injured in some way, and he forcefully declined any partners. After much nudging, and another assassin attempt, and he had to admit it would be a good idea. He never knew, but it leaked out who his partner was going to be, and they were shot before Alex ever met them. I was told two months after I started working with him, and never found it in my heart to tell him." Fox paused, and with a small smile said, "Two questions. Best get them over with now."_

_Wolf waved it off. "Not important."_

"_What was it anyway?"_

"_What was he studying?" Wolf relented. _

_Fox paused. "I don't think he knew what he was going to do when he finished college, but he was good at science and math. I think he would've done something related to that, though. He was a great athlete, too, but I guess that comes from being a spy running for your life all the time." He knew Wolf was thinking Alex was their age, but didn't feel the need to correct them. _

_Wolf took that as an answer. _

_Snake was next. "Why were you his partner out of anyone else? Not that you weren't up to the job, but there's a lot of agents, and you were new."_

_Fox nodded, not insulted. "I'm not sure if it was true, but I overheard once that he asked for me. I assume because we worked together on the snakehead mission. The original partner was killed within a day, so Alex didn't notice the belated question. I was pulled in within a few days."_

_Snake nodded, and motioned for him to continue. _

"_We worked on several missions together, and I started realizing the real reason they gave him a partner. Yeah, he needed someone to help him on these missions and watch his back, but he was doing pretty well on his own. No, the real reason was he was losing his mind. Not in a psychotic break way, but in a becoming emotionless way. He cut himself off from the rest of the world and separated himself from any personal life outside of espionage. They needed someone to try and get to him, and I guess they thought a partner was the best way. It took him four to get along, and five to trust me on a mission. On the sixth month he started opening open, and I realized he'd never spoken to me as himself before then. It was a sobering realization, I'll say that. Around that time I realized he was sleeping in a house that his uncle had owned and his housekeeper had been poisoned in, and he was alone. My flat was open and pretty large for one person, so I offered it. He thought about it and moved in a bit later. _

_Around that time, he really started opening up. He was funny and sarcastic, sometimes a bit cynical, and if he couldn't think of anything else to do, he'd play the worst mind games with enemies. The worst for them, not us. In the field, he barely dimmed and just went with whatever happened. He was a little too used to being caught in dangerous situations. Not to mention his original plans never worked. Once I got used to that, things seemed a lot more hyped down. And damn, he could shoot.* For a while it was sort of like being pulled along into the crocodile cage, until we really did end up in a crocodile cage, but that was just weird, and the feeling went away that there was some sort of force on the universe keeping us alive. I really think that force may just have been Alex."_

"_Yoda?" _

"_Little bit bigger than the normal pocket-sized one, but yep," Fox said with a laugh. His laugh drifted away, and his expression became morose. "We were working on our fifteenth mission together when things went wrong. We got involved, again, in Scorpia. For some time now they had been furious with him, and their fury only increased as Alex continued foiling plots. I was looked over, as I had the feeling that no matter how hard I tried, I could never wreck as much havoc as my partner could manage on complete accident. Their assassination attempts increased drastically, forcing him to take more safety measures. Whenever he wasn't recovering, he was out on a mission. I made him go back to school, which he was less than happy about, but he still needed to learn. I got to sit outside the school every week day and make sure no one tried something stupid. Alex never knew, I don't think, and I didn't want to tell after I chased off someone else who was watching the school. I never learned if they were actually Scorpia or not._

"_After the fifteenth mission, I started noticing a lot more people watching Alex and I. It reached a climax, and then suddenly stopped shortly before our next mission. We went to Iraq to look into something. We were waiting for someone to come pick us up after we'd completed what we were sent out to do… In a drive by, someone shot Alex. The driver missed, as someone swerved into the wrong lane and forced him to pay attention. Alex was unconscious when he was taken out, but wasn't in danger of dying. They still had to leave immediately to treat him… which is why they couldn't stop and look for me. Shortly after I got Al to the hospital… I don't know. I don't remember what happened. I was snatched off the street. When I woke up, I was in a Scorpia compound. I was tortured for two months for information, but it struck me as odd that I was still alive."_

_He shot a glance at his teammates, who were all staring at him in worry. He directed his glance back down to the floor._

"_Nobody told me why, but suddenly I was moved somewhere, where I remained for a few more days. They didn't do anything to me during that time, or spoke to me. On the third day, I was blindfolded and tied up, and moved to a truck. We drove for several hours, and then I was dumped in the middle of a forest. The agents who took me there were waiting for something to happen. I didn't know what was going on for another few hours. Then… someone came out of trees. He untied my hands, but was grabbed by the Scorpia." Fox took a deep breath, trying to say the next part. It caught in his throat, and he stopped tangling his hands to bury his face in them. With his voice muffled, he said, "I was knocked out before I could do anything else, but I got the blindfold off fast enough to see them drag my partner off."_

_It was five minutes before he could speak again. "Somehow I got out of the woods, and found myself in a town in Germany. MI6 sent a car that took me to the airport, where I took a plane back here. I was hospitalized for a month and a half, and in that time everyone refused to speak to me. They knew something I didn't. Finally I was debriefed, and I managed to get the agent to tell me what was going on. He confirmed my suspicions that Alex had traded himself for me. Scorpia was satisfied. They'd tortured me to hurt him, and when it became too much and MI6 lost their grip, Alex got free and begged for an exchange. They made the trade. I contacted them and left messages where I knew they would find it, asking them to switch us. I got no reply. They had who they wanted." Fox's breath sped up. "He was tortured to death over the next three months. Because I wasn't able to fight off the people I knew were after him."_

_Snake reached out and lightly touched his arm. "Fox…"_

_Fox threw it off, and, turning to his friend, cried, "He was _sixteen_, Snake! Why couldn't I help him?"_

"_What?" Eagle whispered. Fox bit his lip. "_How_ old did you say he was?"_

"_Sixteen…" Fox murmured, dropping head into his hands again. His fingers made knots in his hair. "He was only sixteen when he died. Nobody but us and a few people at MI6 and some other agencies even know what he did for the world."_

_No one broke the silence for several minutes._

_Wolf quietly asked, "What did they tell the kids at his school?"_

_Ben shrugged. "I think they said he transferred somewhere. I spoke with his best friend. He's the only one who knows. Alex told him about what had happened to him, so I thought it would be best to finish the story. MI6 doesn't know I did that, obviously." He looked down, hiding his face from the view of his comrades. _

_Eagle reached out and touched his knee, the only thing within reach. "Sorry," he quietly said._

"_I couldn't save a sixteen year old kid put into my protection." _

_Wolf looked up at the ceiling. "The way I see it… this was his release. He wasn't going to be getting out of his job anytime soon, and from the way you described it, he was in pain from everything that was happening, even if he tried to hide it. Dying was the only way he was going to be freed from someone trying to kill him, or people forcing him to work for them, and any other pain. He's finally released from all that. You saved his life, Fox." _

* * *

><p><em>*<em>In Scorpia, they mentioned that he could shoot within the ten range every time until they changed the images to pictures.


	8. Chapter 7

"Sir, they're not sharing," Beckett explained. Montgomery sighed, having expected this. "They're not going to unless someone makes them."

"You can't break them?"

Beckett gave him a look.

"Finally found a force that's stopped you." The glare increased. "Alright, I'll see if I can get in contact, but it'll take me a while. They don't like people interrupting their day, but they're perfectly fine with interrupting others' days."

With that dismissal, Beckett departed and joined her team. "He's working on it," she reported. "Let's see what we can figure out from what we've got already. Rider disappears from school several months at a time during irregular intervals, and then a few months ago disappeared altogether. He reappears here, although we can't find out how he got here. Once he arrives, he calls up a gang and asks them to kill someone, and then comes to the department with a bomb that he is denying affiliation with. He's not denying the gang murder, though. When we spoke to him, he freaked out when he learned that we'd contacted anybody and told them where he was, and panicked even more when he knew someone was coming. My guess is he knew Fox was going to be shot by a sniper or something."

Castle shrugged. "Why do you suppose he wanted someone else to kill someone for him?"

"He's a teenager. Probably didn't want to do it by himself," Esposito said.

Ryan shook his head. "Nah, did you see him throw that knife? He yanked it out and hurled it across the room. Hit his assassin right in the neck. He knows how to kill. He didn't need anybody else to do something for him."

"This will all make more sense when we can get the victim's name…" Beckett muttered under her breath. "Can't they get it any faster?"

"They gotta make contact with the leach, set up a place to meet, and then see if he even knows the answer to the question," Esposito pointed out. She gave him a look that said she knew that.

"Anything happened since we left?" a voice suddenly asked. The group turned around in their chairs to see Wolf standing by the divider wall, arms crossed over his chest. "Both of them should be okay. So long as no one else tries to kill them, anyway."

"Don't jinx it," Eagle muttered behind him.

Beckett narrowed her eyes. "We need to know who this kid is if we're to find out what's going on. Our captain's asking MI6 now." She wondered over how they always managed to sneak in to the bullpen area. They never appeared out the elevator… She glanced behind him. Had they been taking the stairs this entire time? Sneaky bastards.

Wolf's expression mirrored hers, and bystanders edged backward. "The FFSAS gives codenames, yet you'll note that no one has ever been given the name 'Dog'. There's a reason for that."

Montgomery peeked out of his office. "So I'm guessing that that means you're not going to be sharing even if I just got a response from MI6's director that says you need to tell Beckett and her team what they want to know right now?"

"No."

"Okay."

Beckett gave him an exasperated glance as he ducked back behind the wall. She turned her glare back to Wolf. "You want us to help or not? Hell, I don't care. This is our city, our district, and you're not even in your own country! I don't care if you're running a country, you're under our orders!" She was yelling at him by the end.

Nobody moved in the department, exchanging nervous glances. Beckett going off was not a good thing, and a feared occurrence.

Wolf stared back, and Castle got the impression of a wolf laying its ears back and snarling defensively.

"Ah," he said, understanding. "You don't know what's going on either?" Wolf's glare moved to him immediately and intensified. "Yep, you don't know. Sure, you've got the basic idea, but your teammate never told you everything, did he?"

"It's none of your business," Snake snapped. "We might not know what's going on, but we trust Fox, and he trusts the kid. He doesn't place his faith in people lightly."

"Then let us prove he didn't do anything!" Esposito jumped in, standing as he said it. Ryan, seeing where this was going, put his head in one hand, sighing as he did so. Castle scooted back a foot. On the other end, Eagle was moving out of the way of any swinging fists. He slipped around the barrier, and crouched beside Ryan's desk.

"Should we hide somewhere while the nukes fly?" he whispered. Ryan shrugged, but moved back beside Castle. Eagle followed him, and sat on the floor beside their chairs. Their four teammates were still arguing, their voices clearly heard across the room.

A police officer squatted down beside the other three. "Hey, I hate to say this, but…" He gestured. "We can't work. Can you ask them to quiet down or something?"

Eagle shrugged. "Can try." To the other four, he yelled at a volume that shocked the nearby three, "Hey! Shut up!"

Four death glares pierced his skull and he was killed instantly.

He sighed. "Look, we're not going to get anywhere arguing. Yes, we know some, but not all, and Fox is right. The kid doesn't have a shiny past, and it best be one that he tells you himself, and only if he wants to. That's not something I'm going to just tell, and neither will they." He gestured with his head at Snake and Wolf. "Yes, this is your land and territory, and we'll do our best to _respect that_." He emphasized the last two words strongly, staring meaningfully at Wolf. He gave a pointed '_ahem'. _"While we may not all get along and dance in the streets singing- _please_ don't do that- we can at least get something done. You can do your job and we can aid our friend, and along the way we can all help a messed up kid with a crappy life. If we can at least stop arguing long enough to do that, wouldn't it be worth it?"

When no one immediately made a peace offering, he sighed, rolling his eyes. "Fine, let me do it this way. If anyone disagrees, say so."

No reply.

"So it's settled. Beckett, Wolf, talk to each other as little as possible. No offense, but you're both control freaks, and it never works well with two in charge at the same time. It would be best if you controlled different parts of things. And we all need to actually _share_ information. We'll tell you a little of what we know, anything that's important, but you have to tell us too."

Wolf frowned, wondering what bit of the story Fox had told that Eagle thought would be safe to share.

Beckett waved her hand. "Fine. Now, the kid?"

"What do you want to know?"

"Why did he leave school?"

Wolf snorted. "I'm pretty sure that's supposed to remain quiet. MI6 hired him." He said the last bit quietly enough that they were the only ones who heard him. "Every time he was off school, he was on a mission or recovering."

Castle's eyebrows raised, and he exchanged a look with Ryan.

"Why's he here?"

Snake shrugged. "Your guess is as good as ours. We really have no idea. Fox doesn't either."

"How does Fox know him?"

The three exchanged a glance. "That's not important," Wolf firmly said.

Beckett decided not to press her luck, and moved on. "Where was he before he appeared here?"

Eagle looked down at the floor, a grimace on his face. Snake shared a pained expression with Wolf. None of them spoke, clearly hating the answer and not wanting to even think about it. Still, Beckett reminded them with a look about their promise, and Eagle said, "He was in a Scorpia interrogation facility. He irritated them enough that they wanted him to pay. That's the last anyone saw of him."

Castle frowned. "Scorpia?"

Beckett's expression froze in one of horror. She was the only who recognized the name. "Oh my God," she whispered.

"What's Scorpia?" Esposito asked the four who knew. "_Beckett_?"

She took a deep breath. "Sabotage, Corruption, Intelligence, Assassination. They specialize in all four. They're one of the main terrorist groups out there, but you don't hear about them often because the governments keep them under wraps. They do dangerous cold-blooded jobs that usually result in blood baths. They've killed hundreds, if not thousands, in all. Nations around the world have done their best to take them down, but they seem to take everything in stride. Although recently, I've heard something's been changing about that."

Wolf nodded. "Rider came into the equation. He stopped several of their missions from succeeding, and Scorpia's reputation started suffering."

Beckett frowned. "How the hell did he make it out of there?"

"Even Fox doesn't know," Eagle explained with a sigh. "Nobody but he does, I guess. Everyone thought he was dead, for good reason."

"So, their torture camps are some of the worst, then?" Ryan asked.

"More like _the_ worst," Snake corrected. "It's the last place on earth you ever want to find yourself at."

Beckett frowned. She looked at their murder board, which was almost empty except for a few words. "Then what the hell was he doing _here_, and what was he _doing_?"

"When will Rider wake up?" Esposito asked. "It's looking like he's the only person who can explain what's going on."

"Soon, within the day," Snake replied. "What had you come up with before, and what's being done now?"

"We're looking into who the victim was to see if that will clear anything up, but they haven't gotten back to us on that yet. We hadn't been able to come up with any other leads beyond that, and we had no theories as of right now. We were just getting started on the case. Things got hectic with the bomb."

Eagle frowned. "The what?"

Esposito explained.

"This is getting even stranger as it goes…" he muttered.

"We need coffee," Ryan deadpanned, and left for the small kitchen.

* * *

><p>Fox leaned forward, forearms resting on his knees, and watched his partner sleep. It had been months since he had seen him, and he was still having trouble believing his eyes. He'd spent so much time mourning Alex's death and trying to move on.<p>

The teenager was pale, and the rough edges of the bandages were visible through the hospital gown. An IV was attached to one arm, dripping in morphine and the vitamins he needed to survive. On the opposite hand the finger clasp was counting his heart beat on the monitor. The sound had been turned off. Occasionally a finger or foot would twitch, and he gasped once, as if in pain.

The doctors had reported that no major organs had been hit. Alex had moved out of the way to prevent that. It had gone right into his appendix, which had been removed during the surgery. He should be staying in the hospital for at least another month and a half until they even thought about letting him go. A guard had been posted outside the door, and three people had told Ben he could return to his room. He had ignored all three. The hell with them, he wasn't leaving. Not when he'd abandoned his partner once before.

He leaned forward, and brushed a few strands out of Alex's eyes. His arm thrummed in pain as he did so, but he ignored it. "Sorry," he whispered, and sat back into his chair. "I should've known what you were planning to do. Why didn't you stay away?"

His fingers twitched, as if in some sort of unspoken response.

What the hell had he been doing? was all Ben could ask himself as he waited. Having nothing else to do, he started reviewing what he knew.

One. Alex had traded himself in to Scorpia a few months ago, where they had taken him in with open arms and gleeful smirks. Ben and everyone else had assumed he was dead. He would've left to try and rescue him, except someone smart from MI6 had ordered to put handcuffs on him. But now, it appeared that that would've been unnecessary. Alex was not undead, and very much alive.

Two. Apparently, he had sent a gang to kill someone. That bit made no sense to Ben, as he could easily just kill whoever it was himself. Unless he couldn't because he would be somewhere else? Maybe he was done killing-

Ben gave a small gasp. He knew who the victim was supposed to be. He looked down mournfully at the teen as he realized what he thought was the truth. Ben gave a small sigh. The only reason that he could guess was that Alex had been planning to send a warning. Scorpia, of course, would take responsibility, and the warning would be loud and clear no matter who actually sent it.

But it hurt to know he was planning on doing that.

"Alex…" he murmured. "You were always too smart for your own good."

His phone rang. He let it go for a few moments, trying to make sure his voice would be steady. Finally, he answered it. "Yeah?"

Snake was calling. "Hey, we've got news. Nobody told us before, but there was an incident with a bomb." He explained it as Esposito had. "Weird, huh? Can you guess what your partner was doing?"

"Not really to the weird bit. I know what he was doing."

There was a gaping silence. "_Well_?" Snake finally demanded.

"I don't want to say anything unless I know for sure. As soon as I can confirm it I'll tell you, promise."

Snake grunted irritably. "Fine, but I hope you know that Eagle had to intervene before we all tore each other's heads off. Everyone's in some sort of truce agreement right now, but everyone's still frustrated. He needs to wake up soon."

"Yeah," Ben wryly said. "I'll tell him that. But I get the feeling he'll keep sleeping just to piss us off. Can someone switch with me once I know he's okay so I can help?"

Snake paused. "I don't think so."

"Why not?"

"They're a bit… I think they're suspecting that you have some sort of involvement in what's going on. When you look at it from their perspective, it makes sense," he hurriedly added the last sentence as Fox angrily tried to defend himself. "Look, we know you didn't do anything! You were with us, there's no way you could've. You thought he was dead, so how could you help him. But they don't. They really need to talk to you if you want to clear yourself."

"I'll talk to them when Alex does."

Snake sighed. "I hope for both your sakes that happens soon."

"Ask them to check out the bomb and see if they can find traces of where it last was. That should help."

"I think Castle has a theory. Think it's anywhere near yours?"

"If it's insane, it might be."

"Then I better go listen."

The line clicked off. Ben closed his phone and slipped it back into his pocket, going back to watching over Alex.

* * *

><p>"What's your theory, Castle?" Beckett was asking the writer when Snake put his phone away and joined the conversation.<p>

"Well, if I were writing it," he said slowly, "he wouldn't have had any choice with the bomb. Like, he wouldn't have known how to dispose of it, so he had to have someone else do it for him. They said the bomb had a mechanism on it that could be blown up by remote control, right? So what if he was going to call the police but knew that if he did that the bomb would blow. So he snuck it out, because the people who delivered it had already left. They didn't want to get blown up. As long as he wasn't seen, he just had to get the bomb to the police department. But his finger prints would be on it, so he had to find a reason to have come in contact with it. Wearing gloves would be smart, but that wouldn't force the police to dispose it."

"We would've come after it no matter what," Ryan said, frowning.

"Yes, but you said Scorpia is skilled in… all those things. Don't you suppose they could have a mole in the department?" The three officers started to protest, but then exchanged glances, knowing he was right. "If he called it in where the bomb originally was, they'd just detonate it without an issue. This was the best way to do it that he could probably think of on short notice. That was why he brought the bomb here, and pretended to be a hostage."

Wolf raised an eyebrow. "That was the strangest method of coming up with a variable solution for the problem that I've ever seen, but that actually made sense."

Castle nodded with a grin. "It does, doesn't it?"

"You can have a forensic analyst check the bomb for any traces of where it might've been before," Eagle pointed out. With a glace from the lead detective, Esposito called down to Laney.

"She says she's looking into it now, and she'll let us know when she's got something," Esposito said.

In the mean time, they discussed other possibilities that could explain what had happened. Snake didn't mention Fox's comment that he said he had known what was going on. It only took ten more minutes before she called them back. Esposito flicked the speaker phone button.

"_So I looked into the bomb, and found fingerprints from the kid you brought in earlier. There were some other smudges that I can't identify on separate pieces. Dirt from foreign places. What I think you'll all find interesting is the salt water I happened to find on the bomb. I happened to have a sample from the Hudson Bay. It's a perfect match," she said._

"The Statue of Liberty's in the Hudson," Ryan said.

"_You think this bomb was originally there?"_

"We'll look into it. Thanks, Laney," Beckett replied.

"_Mmhmm." _The line clicked off.

Beckett gestured, moving people to their places. "Look into video surveillance from the Statue. Maybe we'll see something that'll help us. If they need a warrant, which they probably will, I'll start working on that."

Eagle rubbed his chin in a mock-thoughtful way. "I suppose if we sent Wolf to just ask we might not need the warrant."

Ryan nodded enthusiastically, and said, "Sure, and send Beckett too. No need to go through the paperwork."

Beckett and Wolf exchanged exasperated glances, and rolled their eyes.


	9. Chapter 8

This may just be the most emotional story I've ever written. But I'm having quite a bit of fun with it…

* * *

><p>Castle closed his door, and leaned against the metal and wood for a moment. Alexis waved at him, called a goodnight, and headed upstairs to her room. Martha was sitting on one of the bar stools, a martini in one hand. She took one look at his expression as he walked past and poured himself a drink. "Bad day?"<p>

"Yeah. Sorta. Bad day."

She raised an eyebrow.

"It was a bad day that had some unexpected twists and turns and wounds in it."

Martha's eyes widened. "Did someone get hurt? Is Beckett okay?"

"Yes, she's fine… We had a suspect who got stabbed right in the building, and no one was able to get to him fast enough to stop it."

"Oh God… Is he alive?"

"Yeah, his friend is watching over him now."

She huffed. "Oh? And where was that friend when he was getting stabbed? I'm telling you, people these days are not-"

"He was getting shot by a sniper," Castle put in with a grimace, taking a drink. Martha paled.

"Really bad day."

"Mmm."

* * *

><p>Eagle had sent him a message alerting them to their progress. They were looking into the Statue of Liberty footage to see if the bomb had been there before it had been taken into the police department building. They thought Alex had moved it from one place to the other so the police would be forced to dispose of it, even if there was a dirty cop involved. Ben had suspected Alex had done something like that. As far as he could tell, there was a likely chance that Alex had heard about the plan and decided to foil it.<p>

Simply because he was Alex, and Alex was not someone to let anything bad slip past him.

It was that insanity that Ben had thought for so long had killed him and a part of Ben.

"The doctors think you'll wake up in a few hours…" Ben muttered, feeling a little stupid. He had stuff that needed to be said, however, and he didn't think he'd be able to tell him when he was awake. "So I'll pass the time." He placed both his warm hands around one of Alex's cold ones. "You're going to surprise everyone, you know. Everyone was positive there wasn't a chance you could possibly make it out of there alive. I guess we should've learned by now, huh? You don't die. You've got a Get Out Of Jail Free card that doesn't seem to expire.

"I guess I'll be telling you later, but… I got debriefed in the hospital. I wasn't able to deal with MI6 anymore. They wouldn't let me go after you, and once I could it was too late. The FFSAS still had a spot for me, apparently, and I was back with my old unit soon enough. Someone else had been filling my place who'd just been going around and covering spots, and he went back to doing that. I… I couldn't tell them what happened for a long time. I finally got around to it two weeks ago." He gave a small chuckle. "I don't feel much better, but I guess I am sleeping a little easier. But Snake needs to stop that damn mother henning. He keeps running psychological tests on me without telling anyone, and it's getting really annoying. They accepted it as well as they could, I guess. They're taking your side down at the police station right now. Would you believe that? The unit that bullied you before your first mission is now helping you after your last mission. Really, though, I think you'll like them once you get to meet them.

"Beckett's team seems kinda uneasy about this, and they don't seem to have decided on whether you're innocent or not. I think Castle has a kid around your age, because it seems like he believes you're innocent. Ryan's doubtful you could do it, and Esposito's… I don't know what he's thinking. Beckett's taking it from a distant perspective, I think, but hearing that you were just with Scorpia startled her quite a bit from what the others said. Montgomery's a funny character. He just takes things as they come and deals with it. He sways to politics, but that's the smart thing to do in a police department. Not everyone has the power you have by simply existing that young in your job."

Ben looked down, running his thumb up and down Alex's hand. "I think… I'm pretty sure I know what you did. But… nobody else knows. I didn't tell them. If I'm wrong, then it should go unsaid, but… I'm probably just denying it. I really hope you weren't stupid enough to…" He took a deep, unsteady breath. "To do what I think you were going to do. I mean… I hope you wouldn't do that. Ever. Even if I were in danger."

The stroking stopped. "Damn, I don't want to ask you, because I don't want to hear you say you did. But I know you have to, because someone's got to go to court for the bomb and conspiracy to commit murder charges. And the mayor was alerted that you were in custody, and too many people saw you…"

Another deep breath. "After your funeral… I found Tom. When MI6 wasn't watching, I told him what happened. It seemed only right. You spoke so fondly about him so much after school. I don't know if you wanted me to tell him, and now that you're not dead, I don't know what's going to happen with that… I mean, I did tell him you died. Can't go back and say 'Oops'. Nobody else knows, unless someone else was told without me knowing. Just Hawson, Kother, Smithers, Crawley… I think Tamara Knight and Joe Byrne might have been told. Everyone who attended the funeral was… well, everyone was in disguise. In a morbid sort of way, it was a bit funny. They couldn't even trust people at a funeral.

"I think… Looking back on it… Wolf told me something that really hit me. He said dying was probably your only way out. I don't know how much I did to help you. I just hope it was enough."

His hands slid away from Alex's. "Damn it!" His head fell into his open palms. "Why? Why couldn't you have just let me stay in there? None of this would've happened…"

From the bed, the hand he had been holding lifted off the sheets. It squirmed into the hands, and squeezed once comfortingly. The hand slipped in like Alex had slipped into his partner's heart.

* * *

><p>The following morning, Castle didn't go straight to the police department. He went back to room 715, thinking that maybe doing so would help him think. He started to knock, when he heard some sounds coming from inside. Castle paused, listening for a moment.<p>

"I'm fine!" Ben exclaimed.

"Are not!" an unfamiliar voice replied.

"Everyone's ganging up on me these past few days. It's just mean."

"I wonder why! I can clearly see the blood through that bandage. Get a doctor to look at it!"

"One did this morning before you woke up."

"Liar."

"… Well, maybe not, but he did last night."

"Oh, _last night_, okay then, that makes it all better."

"I'm getting checked out, then so are you. You're a lot worse off than I am."

"Now wait a-"

"I looked at your medical file."

"I'll bet it said I was shining and ready to be released tomorrow."

"More like a month and a half."

"Oh damn. Need to find a way around that soon."

"You will not! You are staying put here."

"Make me."

"I'm going to go find that doctor."

A chair scooted back, scratching on the floor, and Castle stepped back to avoid being smacked in the face. Fox walked out, and glanced at him in surprise. The door shut behind him without Castle seeing Alex, which worked both ways. Fox gestured for him to walk with him.

When they were several yards away, he quietly said, "Came here to check on him?"

"Yeah. I thought I might be able to think of something if I did. How's he doing?"

"Good for someone who got stabbed. I don't know if you heard, but he should be released in a month and a half. The knife didn't hit any of the major organs. I think Alex moved to prevent that from happening." Fox was quite for a moment. "You have a kid, don't you?"

"My daughter, Alexis. She's a little older than him."

Fox didn't speak for another moment. "I think I know what happened to him, and what he was trying to do. I tried to get him to tell me, but… he's not. Which is only confirming my suspicions. Even if I state them, he's going to lie. I think he just doesn't want me to know in particular."

"Doesn't want you to think bad of him?"

"That, and I think he just doesn't want me to know what happened. It's…" He sighed.

Castle frowned. "That's a problem. So… I ask him, you wait outside and listen in?"

Ben gave a slightly embarrassed grin. "If you wouldn't mind. I've still got some gaps in my reasoning, so I'm hoping I might be wrong still."

"Sure! Let's go find that doctor, and then you've got to fill me in on what you think was going on. I might be able to help with the gaps."

* * *

><p>Alex heard the door opened and closed. He didn't respond, and his eyes were closed as if he were asleep. He didn't make any motion to acknowledge Castle's presence.<p>

"You know, your heart rate is faster when you're awake then when you're sleeping," Castle pointed out.

Alex opened the eye on his side. "I have nothing to say to you, so you've got something to say to me. I figured I'd let you say it without interrupting. Be-Fox spoke to you and sent you in I assume?"

Castle gave a laugh. "Yeah. He had an idea, I had an idea, and combined we've got a solution to all the variables that seem to be emerging around you."

Alex opened his other eye, and sat up, an easy smile on his lips. "I doubt you have the right answer, but I'd like to hear it anyway."

"It's exactly because you say that that we think we do."

Alex cocked his head to one side, the smile slipping a little. "Where's Fox?"

"They needed him back at the station, so I'm replacing him here watching over you and defending you from… scary assassins. I will stab them with… my laptop." He shrugged. "I don't know. I think they wanted to see if he knew anything that could help the situation or explain some of your actions."

"And you're not waiting for the rest of your team to perform the interrogation?"

"I think it's something that can be avoided."

"Hm. Interesting. Alright, let's hear this theory of yours."

Castle smiled for a moment. "So, the beginning's as it seems. The whole switch, Scorpia kidnapping you… From there, I guess you escaped their compound shortly after hearing about the bomb that they were going to blow up the Statue of Liberty. You caught a plane from wherever you were to here somehow."

"Your reasoning has flaws already," Alex chided.

"Not really. You _are_ a spy. Sneaking on a plane or stealing money wouldn't be too hard for you."

"Touché. Continue."

"When you arrived, you rented that building and contacted the gang in a secondary mission you had to do. It wasn't as important as the bomb, but you wanted it to happen and it had to be timed correctly, so you had to work on it first. Once you'd completed that, you went to the scene of where the bomb would be, AKA the Statue of Liberty, and figured out how to steal it. You snatched it, bringing it to the police station. You couldn't call a place where there was most likely Scorpia and tell them you found their bomb. There was a chance whoever picked up the phone would _be_ Scorpia, or they would put a Scorpia in charge of the mission. No, you timed it just so that the bomb was moved with enough time for you to get the police to pull the plugs on it, but Scorpia couldn't replace by the correct time. My guess? There was some sort of domino reaction that relied on that time. Maybe immediately afterward something was going to happen that wouldn't happen again. Like the American embassy would be holding an important meeting with the French around that time. With the bomb out of the way, the whole plan would be disrupted. France and America wouldn't go to war like Scorpia had planned. By the way, that last bit was complete guess work. Anywhere close?"

"Pretty much on the spot with the Scorpia plan, yeah. I'll admit that I underestimated you two on that. I didn't think you'd get it that easily."

"Oh, it wasn't easy. So, that was the bomb. Anything we missed with that half of things?"

Alex thought. "Not that I can think of, no. But before I forget, how did you get the Statue of Liberty?"

"Salt water from the Hudson Bay on the bomb."

"Ah. There's one bit of information I can think of that I'll have to tell you all about that's quite important, but I'll let you finish first. And then we really need to get that information sorted out."

"So, basically, hurry?"

"Preferably, yes. You disrupted my genius plan that would have put something into action, but now I have to do it myself."

"Hm, I do hope we got some of this wrong then, or we're missing a bit of information."

"Probably both. Anyway, the second half?"

Castle paused. "This bit is why you refused to talk to your partner." Alex's smile froze. Had they actually gotten it? "Scorpia was going to mad once their bomb was stopped. They would know you had to be behind it. But you would be gone in the crowds of New York City. You would vanish if you wanted to, and they would never get their revenge again. Their chance was gone. But then there was the matter of the trade. If you were released, didn't that mean that your partner had to go back into captivity? You choices now became letting war break out or damning your oblivious partner to a painful existence, if Scorpia didn't just kill him on the spot. There is no right choice that you can make in a position like that. So out of those two choices, you did Choice C.

"You found a gang in town who could do what you wanted. A message was sent saying you had someone you needed them to kill, and you told them how. What they didn't know was that the victim they were going to kill was the same person who was hiring them. You hired them to kill you in a way Scorpia would and dump your body somewhere public where it would be found. Scorpia would take credit. A message would be sent to your partner, warning him about what had happened. Chances were they would leave him alone, and even if they didn't, he would be prepared for someone to try and kill him. He'd live to fight another day. Debt repaid. He saved your life, you saved his."

Alex swallowed. The cocky smile was gone. "He told you that?"

"Some. I don't think he told anyone but his unit, who seem to have jumped on him like vultures to know what happened. I'm good at psychology, and figured that scenario was likely."

Alex looked past him to the wall. He didn't speak for a whole minute. "Not many people would've been able to figure that out. You did a nice job putting that all together." Castle nodded, and started to stand. Alex reached out and grabbed his arm, stopping his movement. "But…" He sighed. "I expect I'll be charged for murder and the bomb thing if you can manage to connect it, but prison will give me some extra time before Scorpia gets to me."

"You kidding? With all that information, you won't go to court. There's probably a bunch of proof threaded through all that that defends your case fluently."

Alex grimaced. "Yes, I know, but… No matter what, don't tell Fox."

Castle paused. "That's ridiculous."

"What?"

"That's ridiculous. _This_ is ridiculous. Look, he's your partner. Or, technically, was, since you're 'dead' and he's in FFSAS. The point is, he won't judge you on what you did. There's not many people who could pull off or even think up what you did. You should be proud."

"Maybe, but I know I'm going down, and… Fox… I know he's upset I made the trade. I don't want to die and leave him knowing that I was going to kill myself for him."

Castle paused. This was really not his area of expertise. "You two need to sort this out." Alex started to say something, desperate to stop him, but Castle turned and left the room. He stopped right before the door, and said. "You've got a great friend who's willing to give you help if you'll take it. Scorpia's on a downward spiral, I've heard. Hold on just a bit longer. Survive. Then you won't have to leave your partner with that information."

He opened the door, and stepped out. He glanced the opposite way, and then turned right and departed. The door remained open behind him.

Alex dropped back onto his bed with an upset sound, and covered his face with one hand. A sound came from outside the room, like that of someone standing. Hesitant footsteps walked in. Alex didn't have to look to know who put their hand on his head, and rub it lightly with a brotherly affection.

"Alex, there's something I don't think you understand," Ben whispered. Alex could clearly hear it in the silence. "To me, you're the rambunctious, funny, crazy, smart, sharp-tongued younger brother who always breaks the rules and never pays for them. You're the little brother I've never had, and before now, never wanted to. I was never one for these sentimental talks, and I don't know what the hell's been going on with everything recently. Shit's been hitting the fan, as they say. In a summary, think of it this way, Alex. You're going to make me feel worse if you die on me."

Neither of them spoke for a moment.

Alex spoke with finality, "Then let's go finish what we started."


	10. Chapter 9

I'm posting two chapters at the same time because I said I'd post a chapter for Writer With Sprite... and then I forgot... So I'm giving you two chapters at the same time.

* * *

><p>An hour later, Castle, sitting in the hall outside the room on a bench, answered his phone dismally when it rang. "Yeah?"<p>

Beckett paused on the other end. "_Castle? You alright?_"

"Yeah. I'm fine. We got the situation out of the kid."

"_Isn't that good?_"

"Sorta. They're figuring things out now. Alex wouldn't talk to Fox, so I had to go in and get the answers. They're in a badly needed discussion right now. It'd be best to let them finish that up, but Alex said there was something he needed to address. There was something we missed in our diagnosis."

"_In your diagnosis or all of ours'? 'Cause there was a hell of a lot that we missed. I know you heard that Eagle stopped a blood bath, but there's going to be murder soon if we can't figure this out._"

"Hm, okay. Yeah, we'll try to get this sorted-"

A crash came from inside the hospital room. Castle stood, and looked down the hallway. He was twenty yards away, having been giving them privacy. The door was now open, and there was a flurry of motion coming from inside. The guard was gone.

"_Castle? Castle!"_

Knowing it was a bad idea but doing so anyway, he hung up and dropped the phone into his pocket, running down the hall at the same time. Castle peeked into the corner, ducking just in time as someone flew over, hitting his back and then rolling off. He looked up.

Alex was off the bed, but had one hand on it for support. Ben was standing in a fighting stance, and was clearly pissed off. The guard was on the floor, but Castle couldn't tell if he was dead or unconscious. The flying man seemed to be quite dead though, and on further inspection Castle saw an IV sticking out of his upper arm, definitely not put in gently. Alex was missing his.

"What was that?" he said, squeaking slightly.

"Before Ben's flying jump over the bed," Alex dryly commented, "I could make out the assassin dragging in the guard. After that, just, you know, flying people and Ben doing some kick butt action scene." Fox was rolling his eyes.

"Was it necessary to stab the guy with an IV?"

"Maybe not."

Castle glanced back out into the hall. "This is a pretty vacant area of the hospital, so they shouldn't see the bodies anytime soon. Will there be any other assassins coming or anything?"

"Probably. We need to go."

Ben started to protest, but sighed. "Fine. I'll see if I can get you some clothes."

Castle frowned. "Won't they be watching the exits? I mean, they're pretty pissed. If I were them, I'd try to finish you off in one fell swoop."

Ben smiled. "I've got an idea. How willing do you think your ME be to help out?"

* * *

><p>Beckett put the phone down, and ran a hand through her hair. "Security got to the hospital room. The guard's awake, and said that someone forced their way in. Sounds like another assassin. There's no sign of any of our guys."<p>

"Damn." Wolf looked at the floor.

"Is it worth searching the rest of the hospital with the security there?" Esposito asked.

"If Scorpia got them, they're beyond help now," Snake quietly said. That comment stopped all conversation.

And then Castle came bounding into the room. "Hey guys! Guess what happened!"

If it hadn't been illegal, everyone with a gun in the room would've shot him at that moment. The glares that were shot at him were good replacements, and he stopped with a mock wince. "Oh, so you heard then?"

"Where are the other two at?" Eagle asked urgently.

"Where the hell were you?" Beckett asked almost simultaneously.

"Sorry, I was busy. Fox and I had to kill Alex."

The phone rang insistently. Beckett picked it up.

"_Hey, I got your body in. What am I looking for?_"

Beckett paused. "What?" Castle looked at the ceiling innocently. Beckett shot him a look and a gesture, asking if she was going to have to murder him. Castle shrugged. "What body?"

"…_Castle told me you asked me to get a body from the hospital brought in._"

Beckett stared at him. "_What_?"

"_I guess that's a no then. What do you want me to do with it then?"_

Beckett pulled the phone away from the mouthpiece. "Castle! What the hell's with the body?" She dropped the phone and put it on speakerphone.

"Ooh, ask her if it's moved yet!" Castle asked, grinning.

"_Heard that._" There was a pause. "_Where the hell's my body?_"

Castle shrugged, grinning. "Guess that's a yes."

The elevator dinged, and two people stepped out. Eagle looked up and grinned, his matching Castle's. He waved enthusiastically at them, laughing as he did so. Ben was wearing a pair of doctor scrubs, like what a coroner would wear. He had a backpack in one hand. Alex was wearing the white gown of a hospital, but it looked like he had snatched a jacket from somewhere.

"Told ya. We had to kill Alex," Castle said, smirking.

"He just got so annoying," Fox sighed, but rubbed the teen's head. He ducked away, swatting at the hand in annoyance.

"I'm glad you clowns are having fun," Alex said sarcastically. He glanced at the homicide squad, and sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "Hehe, um, sorry about the… whole… bomb thing, y'know…. And everything else…"

"Just don't do it again," Esposito said with a grin, leaning back in his chair. "What's with the dead body look and ME outfits?"

"Well, we couldn't get out the front entrance, because as Castle pointed out, chances were that they were going to be watching the normal exits. So he called Laney and asked her to pick Alex up, and I wheeled him out after 'borrowing' an outfit from the doctors at the hospital."

Castle tossed a spare change of clothes at him he'd pulled from the backpack Fox had set down. "Might want to get changed."

"_Next time, just tell me the reason you need a body picked up,_" Laney sighed. Castle jumped, having forgotten she was still there. "_Alright, am I done_?"

"Yep, thanks for your help."

"_Mmhmm._"

"None of you felt the need to alert us to what you were doing?" Wolf dryly asked.

"If we got here fast enough, we might not even have to explain was our reasoning," Fox said with a smile as his ex-partner took the clothes to the bathroom to change.

"Do we get an explanation for everything now?" Snake pointed out their ignorance. Fox and Castle exchanged glances, grins fading. "Guess that's a no," the medic muttered under his breath.

"Let's wait for Alex to get back…" Fox said slowly.

Montgomery glanced out of his office, and walk out. "Hey, shouldn't you still be in the hospital?"

"We checked ourselves out," Fox replied. "Alex had something he needed to address with you and some higher ups. Like, now."

"Ah, bad news?"

"Sorta."

Alex dropped back in at that point. "More like there's some people who need a lift out of a war zone. I assume word's spread around about a piece of chaos taking place in the middle of a rainforest in South Africa?"

"That classified bit of information?"

"Yeah, probably that. There's about twelve people who would like a trip out, if nobody minds." He and Montgomery went into the latter's office, and after a few more words, they made a call.

"I can tell you what they're talking about before everyone goes in there or tries to eavesdrop," Ben said as they all moved toward the office to do one of the two. They all froze. He smiled. "Alex didn't get out of the Scorpia compound on his own. There was a little more than a dozen other pissed off captives there who all escaped with him, but they're all in South Africa right now. They were covering for Alex and someone else while they ran over here to stop the bomb. Two others were going over to alert their superiors, but it sounds like both teams but Alex got killed. The rest need to get out, though."

"Why didn't they all just come over?" Ryan asked.

"They wanted Scorpia to think they, including the two teams, were still there. They were all in bad shape, so they couldn't get here and have to fight off Scorpia after Scorpia. Hence, a sneaky teenager. The gang was going to send a message out to MI6, although they weren't going to know it, and alert them to the situation. However, since that never played out like it was supposed to, Alex was going to handle it this way instead."

None of them were stupid enough to try and ask what had been supposed to happen again.

"So, right now they're organizing a team to go out and retrieve the people out there?" Wolf asked.

"Sounds like fun," Snake murmured sarcastically, but Eagle looked mischievous. Snake looked at his teammates. "Oh no." Then he went to threatening. "If I have to patch any of you up, you will not be getting anesthesia."

Eagle, standing while Snake was sitting, dropped on the medic, looping his arms around his neck. Snake looked pissed off. "It's a sign of how much he loves us," Eagle mock-whispered.

Alex saved Eagle's neck as Snake swung him over the chair, onto the floor, and pressed a foot down to keep him pinned there. "I'm sorry if I'm interrupting," Alex said, "but we're getting into the interesting bit. If you want to hear, now would be the time to listen in. But you need to keep quiet." He ducked back, and the rest filed in.

"Can we bring in a few more computers or laptops?" Montgomery asked. "We're going to need two more."

A few more were scavenged, and placed on chairs or a spare part of Montgomery's desk. Webcam was pulled up on each one, and they got MI6 up. Alex spent a few minutes on the other one, hacking into frequency and figuring out a certain reception. While he did so, Montgomery briefed Hawson on what had been told.

Alex was still working when they were finishing up. After a few seconds of silence, Wolf asked, "What happened to the previous Special Operations Director? When I was sent to back up Cub in the Point Blank incident, someone named Blunt signed it."

Hawson nodded. "He was… ejected." Alex snickered. "Quite forcibly. With blackmail. A lot of blackmail. And some not-so-subtle persuasion. Courtesy of Rider, of course. The deputy was dropped the same hints, and she made the smart move and resigned."

Wolf raised an eyebrow, and with a laugh, Fox cleared it up. "Turns out, you catch hell if the same teenager you blackmail into working for you stays on, because then he'll do everything you did to him, but do it to you. And more."

"Ooh, bet that went over well," Eagle said.

"Several agencies who had started thinking about hiring teenagers had another think, especially after I started looking their way," Alex replied, amused.

Snake jerked a thumb at him. "Why didn't we keep him around as our people person?"

"Got it!" Alex said, and a visual came up on the screen. "You guys got a camera?"

"Snitched it from a Scorpia group. I think you can see the rest of their junk burning in the background," someone on screen said. She waved to the people behind him. "Took your time making contact. I thought MI6 was going to…?"

"Ah, yes. My pesky partner got in the way with the second bit, along with the neighborhood homicide squad." Alex gestured at Beckett and her team. "Captain Montgomery, and Detectives Beckett, Ryan, and Esposito, this is Agent Fault. Fault, meet those people and K-Unit's Wolf, Snake, Eagle, and Fox."

"Why's Fox wearing doctor scrubs?"

"Because he just pretended to be an ME. Long story."

A voice came from off screen. "Oi, that the kid?"

"Nice to hear from you again too, Johnson. Nice to see you're not as dead as I thought you were."

A hand waved upside down in front of the camera, obscuring all view for a moment. "To quote Mark Twain: 'The accounts of my death have been greatly exaggerated.' I'm staying until I'm done."

"Nice to hear that."

"Not for me," Fault snapped. "Move your hand."

"Oh sorry, am I obstructing your beautiful self?"

Fault disappeared from the screen, and there were sounds of her whacking someone with something very heavy. When she came back, she plopped down with her gun in her lap menacingly. "So, anyway, did the Statue of Liberty get saved?"

"It's quite intact, yes."

"Alright. Then it's time for us to be pulled out, if you don't mind," she said. The screen crackled for a moment, and the already rough sound became incoherent. A few garbled words came through, and minutes passed before the screen reappeared. "Sorry about that. We're trying to hold a place, but it's getting hard with their superior numbers and fire power. Although we did steal a few more vehicles."

Hawson started talking, and Alex moved the camera so she could see the director. "I'm looking at people I can send out now, but it would be quicker to send out people from America. It's closer."

Fault, who was from the German military intelligence service of MAD*, nodded. "Always loved working with you. You're one of the few people who admit that maybe other agencies and services can do their jobs just as well as you can."

"Oh, I never said that," Hawson said with a smirk. "I said they were _closer_."

Wolf shook his head, rolling his eyes. "Look, I don't doubt there's a Delta Force** squadron that wouldn't be willing to help out, and I know they can get the job done. An extraction operation involved in Scorpia, a terrorist organization, should go to them anyway."

"This should be done covertly," Hawson said, but he sounded like he was just saying it for formality reasons. On the screen, Johnson reappeared, but he wasn't looking at the screen. He was standing, and from his posture, serious expression, and ready gun, he was guarding Fault to prevent her from getting killed while she was working things out.

"A police captain got information about this 'classified bit of information'. I think it's a little late for that," Alex dryly reminded. K-Unit were muttering quietly between themselves.

"Alright. I guess since I have the best standing I can give the Delta Force colonel a call and ask him." Hawson started to turn away.

"If he says yes, please ask if the squadron doesn't mind us coming along," Wolf said.

Hawson nodded, and then vanished for a few minutes.

"While they're doing that," a man from Fault's side said, sitting down and sitting next to her, "should we figure out the safe code phrase?"

"We should probably have one for right now. For all we know, during that short out you could've been caught by Scorpia," Snake bluntly pointed out. Neither of them were offended, and took it in stride. They exchanged glances with Alex, and Fault sighed in irritation.

"So we were smart enough to get a teenager out of a battle zone, onto a plane, and let him save two countries, _while_ pulling off a side job, _while_ feeding himself, and we didn't think up a safe word? Are you kidding me?" she snapped.

"That has to be the biggest flaw any of us have ever messed up on," the new man said. "Oh, by the way, I'm Captain Lowe. America still look the same as it did three months ago?"

"Generally," Castle answered.

"Hey, you look familiar from somewhere. Did you-"

"Not now," Fault sighed. "Any code phrase we could use now that we all know for sure would mean we were safe? Anything at all?"

After a few moments of silence, Alex said, "Come on there's gotta be something we could do." Still silence. "Phrases _not_ in sign language."

Johnson snickered, and stopped hand signing with Lowe. He laughed. "Hey, I know a phrase we could use!"

Alex groaned, putting his head in his hands. "Oh no."

"Know where I'm going with this?"

"Unfortunately, I think so. The opposite of what Anders was talking about."

"Damn straight!" Lowe caught on, and fell onto his back laughing. Fault groaned. Johnson spread his legs, and made an emphasizing gesture with both hands. "_These nuts!_"***

Hawson came back to find Alex with his head buried deep into his hands, Montgomery sharing a laugh with Esposito and Ryan, Eagle leaning on Snake as he laughed, Wolf shaking his head at the ceiling, Castle snickering, and Beckett giving the computer one of her famous condescending looks. "What'd I miss?" he asked. "Never mind, I don't want to know."

"No, you don't," Lowe cheerfully said. "So, is that the safe phrase for when you all get over here?"

"No," Fault said at the same time Johnson said, "Yes." She glared at him, and he backed off. "We're finding a different code word," she confirmed, daring someone to disagree. Hawson stayed far out of the topic, suspecting Fault would destroy him through the computer if he asked.

"Colonel Hall said to go for it," he said. "There's a squadron down in Fort Bragg**** right now who's ready for action. You'll have to catch a flight right now, but-" He was still talking when the four practically bolted out the door, Alex right behind them. Continuing like nothing had happened, he said, "Please tell me they did not just run out the door without any money whatsoever to pay for a flight, while one has a hole in his shoulder and another has it in the stomach."

"I'll go get them," Esposito said. He leaned out the door, and shouted, "Hey! How're you planning on getting tickets?" They screeched to a stop. "Exactly. Now wait a moment! He wasn't being literal."

"I sorta was…" Hawson muttered. When they had come back in, he said, "I don't doubt there's not some federal funds in an account box near you that MI6 has specially stashed away for something like this. But for someone like me to mention it would be absurd. And then for me to happen to slip up and give you the proper access codes and what not for it… That would just be ridiculous. The bank might happen to be the Greenwood Bank, and the access number might just happen to be-" He continued, and Montgomery copied it down. "Alright, if you don't mind, I need to go deal with some other stuff that's popped up. Damn it, Rider, why'd you get me promoted." He clicked off before Rider could respond.

"Sir, should we go access the accounts?" Beckett asked Montgomery.

Montgomery looked at Wolf.

Wolf looked at Ben.

Ben looked at Alex.

Alex nodded.

Ben nodded.

Wolf nodded.

Montgomery turned to Beckett. "Yes."

"Who's in charge?" Castle muttered.

* * *

><p>*Militärischer Abschirmdienst work in counterintelligence and "detection of "anticonstitutional activities" within the Bundeswehr", according to Wikipedia.<p>

**This is one of America's main counterterrorist units. I actually read an amazing book on them called _Inside Delta Force_, and have been reading history books ever since. Anyway, they're the equivalent of the SAS, but in America.

***I AM SO SORRY. IT'S ALL MY COUSIN'S FAULT.

**** A Colonel Hall has never led Delta Force, and as far as I know, isn't right now. I don't know who is. Fort Bragg is the Delta Force's main base, down in North Carolina. A colonel has always been in charge Delta Force as far as I can tell.


	11. Chapter 10

Shout out to **Writer With Sprite** for helping me! I knew the story needed more humor, so she stepped in to give me a hand. She helped with the prologue (which was being written at the same time as this chapter). ...Maybe I shouldn't have given away that secret.

* * *

><p>Snake pulled aside Ben and Alex. He talked quietly, but Wolf still looked over to see what they were doing. He seemed to catch on, and went back to watching Esposito and Ryan as they slipped into the bank account.<p>

"I think you two need to stay behind," Snake said. "You two haven't been here, but there have been some problems with associating with the police department. If they can keep an eye on you-because they're probably still suspicious-it would keep them calmer. I know you want to go, but…"

Fox gave him a level look, and finished for him. "But we're both injured and you don't want a kid in the field."

"No-"

"And not to mention you're not sure where either of us stand on a mental stability level," Alex piped up.

Snake paused. "I really think you two should stay behind."

"No one knows the compound like I do," Alex deadpanned. "I spent months planning out the escape route into the surround area with the other twelve, and I'll be able to tell you if anything's wrong with any of them. I need to be there."

"I know, but if you're there, you're going to want to get involved, and no matter how skilled you are, you have a hole in your stomach. I am not going to let you go in there."

Fox was nodding in agreement, and for a moment Snake thought he was seeing his side. "Which is exactly why I want to go along. I've been keeping Al out of trouble ever since I started working with him, and I'll do it again. And I'm not leaving you a teammate short."

"Fox-"

Snake paused, looking at the two unwavering stares that were boring into him. "You two _can't go._"

"Yes we can. You just don't want us to."

"You want to help? You can stay here and help with the communications. We need someone doing that, and there's nothing we can let you do in the field as you are." Snake grimaced. "I expect you two want to get out of here soon? You still have to deal with the court thing. The whole police department knows about the bombing, and word is spreading. Someone has to be held accountable. Cub, if you don't want to go to jail, you have to do something about it."

"I know," he responded with a grimace and sigh. "But this is more important. I can deal with the legalities when I get back*."

"Somebody still has to stay behind to make sure they don't mess up on the communications. I know they're good, but I don't trust them to get this done," he honestly added in.

"Then Fox stays behind," Alex said, offering up his ex-partner immediately.

"Hey!"

"Well, I guess that would work," Snake slowly said. "But he was right. We do need a fourth person on the team."

"Exactly. And you're wounded worse than I am," Ben said to Alex.

Snake and Alex were ignoring him. "Yes, but there should be plenty of Delta Force there. I doubt they'll all have full teams. There might be some people who need a spot to fill. They should just be getting relieved from active duty now or soon."

"Hm. I guess so."

"Not to mention I really should be there."

"You're going to have to get that passed over with Wolf. I have no say in this."

"_You _have no say in this? _I_ have no say in this!"

Snake and Alex turned to Wolf, completely ignoring the existence of Fox. Wolf walked over, and Snake pointed out the pros and cons they had just discussed. All of them pretended Ben wasn't there as he muttered annoyed phrases under his breath.

* * *

><p>Ben sulked as he and the other communication officers waited for something to happen. Beckett's team was in there, waiting for news to come in as well. Castle looked especially worried, and Ben knew he was thinking about Alex and how close his age was to his daughter's.<p>

After another half hour passed, Ben walked over to the group. "I know some things were announced, but I don't know how much was said that would incriminate him. I know he did it, but this isn't something that he should be charged for."

Ryan shifted uncomfortably. "Oh, yeah… Um, I got caught up in all this and didn't have time to mention this, and then I forgot, but… The officers working on the gang's case called in and said they got a name and photo for the victim, as well as a place he would be at and a time when he would be there. He didn't show up yesterday for obvious reasons."

"Not obvious right now," Beckett said.

Ben grimaced, and Ryan shifted his weight again. "The victim… It was Rider. He asked them to kill him and drop his body in a public place. They weren't supposed to leave any marks that would point towards the gang for doing it."

Beckett stared at him, and then slowly turned her gaze to Ben. "What the hell was he doing?"

"I told you, he shouldn't be charged for that." Ben glanced at the clock. "They should still be flying down to meet with the Delta Force guys, and if they're not, they're just lifting off now to head to Africa. I think it is time that I explained. Alex doesn't need to come back and have to sort out all this stuff when he gets back."

* * *

><p>"Alright, I'm getting a bit confused between talking to the rest of my unit, Alex, Castle, and all of you. What do you know about Alex?" Ben asked. They were borrowing the room with the long table for privacy's sake instead of using the desk area. Ben was standing while the rest sat.<p>

"He's got something to do with MI6," Esposito started.

"Something that's gotten him out of school and injured a lot, from what the hospital report said," Ryan added.

"Everybody goes all hush-hush when we even mention him," Beckett said pointedly.

Castle raised his hands. "I kinda skipped over the basics and just went to the details of recent events. I don't know anything more than them, but if I had to make a guess based on everything that was just said… I'd say MI6 used him to be a spy."

Beckett rolled her eyes at another one of his pompous theories, while Esposito snorted and Ryan gave a laugh.

But Ben didn't respond, and when Esposito and Ryan had stopped sharing the small joke and joined Castle and Beckett in looking back at Ben, the FFSAS man simply said, " 'Used' would be the most apt description of it." He was aware he had their complete attention at that moment. "Alex was blackmailed into working for them." He continued, and for the next ten minutes, covered most of what he had told K-Unit, although he several cut it down. He didn't see the need to share such personal information with the detectives. Then he started in on the bits that he and Castle had discussed.

At the end, the team was exchanging glances that spoke wonders for something silent.

"Do you understand why we wanted to keep this quiet for as long as possible?" Ben asked. "I'm sorry we couldn't say anything before, but it seemed to be the right thing to do."

Before he finished, Beckett was already shaking her head apologetically. "Yes, we see your reason. Don't be sorry. You should've done exactly what you did."

"Was there anything I didn't cover?" he asked.

Esposito raised his hand slightly, and then dropped it. "You didn't mention this, but it wasn't really necessary anyway. By doing this, was he also trying to throw out the people who put him into espionage?"

Ben laughed heartily at that. "Oh trust me, he didn't need to. Alex completely crash and burned the two who brought him in. That took him about… oh, two months after he officially joined. I can assure you, he did it with glee and enthusiasm."

"Scary teen," Ryan muttered.

"You have no idea."

Beckett rubbed her face into her hands. "Damn. How the hell are we supposed to clear this up in a court? Most of this shouldn't even be told to _us_, let alone a public jury. You should go through a military court, and I guess you'd have a better chance there anyway, but I'm still not sure how much information of this you can disclose. I doubt any of this is in a file that doesn't have a big red stamp on it with two words."

Ben grimaced. "Yeah, that's where I was coming from with this." He paused. "Wait. Will they even allow him to go before a military court?"

The four of the detectives exchanged glances.

"This isn't going before a civil court, but it'd be better than something whipped up by the espionage agencies," Ben said. "I know that if a British agent commits a crime in an active battle zone for another country they go before a military court there. We were in Iraq at the time, but I'm not completely sure that it still works in this case. Heck, I don't know how your courts work either."

"I think I know, but I'm not sure. Mind if I pull Montgomery in?"

"Better safe than sorry." Ben shrugged, and Beckett left for a moment. She returned with their captain, who was briefed with even less detail than the others.

It consisted of: "The kid was caught by Scorpia, overheard them say that they were going to bomb the Statue of Liberty and do some other stuff to start a war with France, and escaped and got here to stop them, and then hired a gang to kill him so his body would serve as a warning to his ex-partner that Scorpia was pissed off and would be going after him next."

Montgomery looked at them all blankly. "Oh. Well. Um, you needed me for something? And can someone make sure the kid gets back alive?"

Ben smirked. "Oh, I can assure you, the rest of K-Unit won't let him out of their sight. If Snake has someone under his medical skills, they aren't getting another scratch, and God help anyone who crosses Wolf or Eagle."

"…That's good to know, I guess."

"Sir," Beckett said, bringing the conversation back to the legalities, "we were wondering how a military court would handle this in this particular case."

Montgomery frowned. "I don't think it _can_ be brought before a military court. As he did something here, it would have to go to a civil court since he's not one of ours."

"He was caught in Iraq," Ben replied. "I'm positive we were in an active American battle zone at the time I was caught."

Montgomery looked confused, and Castle explained, "We gave you the seriously watered down version."

"O…kay… But he had to perform something illegal in the battle zone."

Ben snorted. "Knowing the kid, he had something along these lines planned out before he switched himself for me." Things clicked with Montgomery, and a horrified expression crept on. "He admitted to planning the killing before he left for America, which means he was still in a compound. He told me that he and the others were moved from place to place several times, and once he may have been back in the Middle East. There's a real possibility he was in an American battle zone, so even if he hadn't been thinking of it before, that would put it into an American military court right there. And even if everyone starts making a fuss about where he should go, nobody's going to want his case anyway. I mean, no one's going to want to convict him, but then you can't exactly let him loose either. So the case would simply… ah, get lost in paperwork."**

Montgomery thought about that for a moment, and then said, "Well, there are three kinds of military courts he could get put to, but it's likely he would go to the top one, which is the general court-martial. He can get a serious sentence there, which is probably why he'd go to that one instead of any of the others. In that one, there're five officers and one judge who would handle the stuff a judge does, and then the jury."

Ben nodded. "Would I sound crazy if I said that might be better than a civilian court or something done under the hush-hush?"

Esposito shook his head at the same time Castle nodded.

"I think if we can get him there, we might be able to give him a minimal sentence," Ben sighed. "How long did they say until the operators get back from the mission?"

"Quite a while. A few days," Ryan said.

"Damn. Guess he won't be appearing if we want this done soon. Under the circumstances, however, I think we can get him a case without having him be there. Scorpia's got people everywhere, and we don't need one on the court. If we can avoid mentioning a name, that would be nice."

Montgomery nodded. "I can look around and see if there's anyone who'd be willing to do a case like this. You're sure about doing this?"

"Completely."

"And what are your superiors saying?"

Ben paused. "Uh."

"Have you even spoken to them yet?"

"Not… really, no."

"They don't even know you're thinking about this, do they?"

"Not in the slightest."

"Well, while you get that sorted out, I'll start searching. Best of luck to you explaining the situation."

"Mm. You too on getting someone to take this." Montgomery waved, and then departed. Ben picked his phone out of his pocket, and sighed at it. "MI6 will be my undoing. Crap, we haven't even spoken to the sergeant about any of this. That's going to be one pissed off man when we finally get to it…"

"Want us to stay and watch the ping pong match, or…?" Beckett asked.

"Surprisingly, Hawson is quite lenient around things. Great director head, I'm telling you. A lot better than Blunt, that's for sure," he said, muttering the last part under his breath. He dialed the number, and the four mock-plugged their ears while he gave code phrases and ID. When he finally got through to Hawson, he put the phone on speaker. He deadpanned, "We want to try Alex in an American military court."

A long silence followed that.

Hawson spoke about two minutes later. "I guess I can see where you're going with that…" Beckett and Castle exchanged glances. This was a _lot_ different than dealing with the FBI. "Does he happen to know that you're doing that, or did he think this up?"

"Ah, he doesn't know a thing."

"Hm. Okay. Well. Might want to talk to him first, but then, I'm guessing you want this cleared up before he gets back?"

"I think that'd be nice."

"It would be. I think if enough people lean, and even if they don't, we should be able to get a military court over there to take the case. And I'm guessing you want it done over there instead of here because they're more likely to keep quiet?"

"Right."

Castle frowned. "Following what reasoning?"

"It'd be bad for news to leak that England had used a teenager as a spy against his will, and when he finally wanted to he was caught by terrorists, but imagine if news leaked that America had used the same teenager. Both countries would be crushed, and America would face some serious problems. I mean, use your own kid, that's a big no-no, but use someone _else's_? Hell's raining down either way, but I'd rather be England and the U.S.," Ben explained. "And because it's not their kid, the people over here will see it from a view more along the lines of a poor kid who got thrown into the mess. Over there, chances are he might have met them. He knows a lot of people."

"Ah."

Over the phone, Hawson asked, "Have you found a court willing to take the case?"

"Our captain's looking into it now," Beckett asked.

"Alright. Well, I hope you can get this cleared up soon." Hawson paused. "Try to keep me out of it, and let the kid know I still do not appreciate the sudden and unwelcome promotion. There is way too much paperwork involved in this. Speaking of whom, let him know he's out."

"And if he denies it?"

"Then let him know he's being a pain in the ass. Why would he deny it?"

"I know the kid better than anyone and I still can't predict what he's going to do or say next. I'm just covering all my bases."

Beckett frowned. "Out of what?"

"Espionage," Fox and Hawson simultaneously answered.

"Let me know if anything else happens," the MI6 Special Operations director continued, "but I need to be going. The aforementioned paperwork is getting to me. I can feel it sucking my life away. I'd tell you good luck, but either it's going to end wonderfully or it's going to end terribly. Luck doesn't have anything to do with it."

* * *

><p>A few hours later, Montgomery finally reported back to them. "I got someone who's willing to take the case. I spoke to some other people while I was at it, and they're going to try and find a jury made up of people who are already familiar with Alex's… um… job placement. That way we don't have to spread the pool of people who know about him, and less OSAs to deal with."<p>

"When can they do a court hearing?"

Montgomery paused. "That's the problem… It's right now."

"As in, today?"

"As in _right now_."

"Where." Ben started moving to the door.

"Beckett can show you. As I assume her team will sneak off to watch anyway, I'll just send them with you. Remember where the Harbor Court*** is?" he asked.

"That one we're not supposed to mention?" she replied. To Ben, Beckett explained, "The Harbor Court is a courtroom for stuff like this that no one wants overheard. I've only had one case that ended in it, and I don't think anyone else here knows about it. The amount of secrecy paperwork we had to get through was tottering."

"I can imagine… Is it in the state?"

Montgomery shrugged. "The Court is in just about every state. They're kept under wraps so that it'll be harder to spy on any cases that enter the building."

"Ah. Where is it?"

"About twenty minutes away. Let's go," Beckett said, grabbing her jacket.

* * *

><p>*This sounds remarkably like my sister. "Tsuki, you have pneumonia. You should probably go to sleep." "I know, but I have to finish this fanfiction chapter." "Do you know what priorities are?" "What're priorities?"<p>

**This gets really complicated, and I am not explaining the whole thing. Just trust me on what I say. This is coming from my grandfather, and I don't think he was BSing this stuff. And do you know how long it took me to make sure he could get into an American court so I could sort this stuff out easier? So all this legal stuff… take my word for it that it's accurate, please.

***I completely made this up. This is a crossover with espionage, so I figured I should put something sneaky in like this. And I figured, y'know, I'd give Castle an amusement park to play with.


	12. Chapter 11

Beckett sat down next to Ben outside the court room. "Worried about how this is going to turn out?" she asked.

He shrugged. "Worried in general. My problems jumped from finding a way to keep the whole dead-partner thing from my unit and still surviving Hell to keeping my not-so-dead partner alive and keeping his reputation… well, as clean as before without any untrue things added to it." He paused. "I don't suppose he's going to be so insane as to actually try and go with the other soldiers to help get the other prisoners out of the area, right?"

* * *

><p>The helicopter touched down, and the nearby grass flattened from the wind. Tree branches shuddered, leaning away from the blades. Alex looked on, a bit mournful, as the Delta Force and K-Unit men slipped into the trees. One fired a gun into the air, and a luminescent yellow gas spit out from the end of it. At the same time, a second helicopter thirty kilometers away let out a green gas. The men from both places would head out to find the ex-prisoners, while the Scorpia agents in the area would have to split up to attack both gases. In the mean time, a third and fourth helicopter landing under the night's cover would wait quietly for everyone to arrive, and would leave once the prisoners had gotten on board. Then the Special Forces men would loop back around, and their own helicopters would pick them back up. There were more details involved, like the specific air wave the helicopters would send out to alert the prisoners and soldiers to their whereabouts, but Alex hadn't heard it all. Snake and the other medics had teamed up against him and knocked him out with something when he wasn't looking.<p>

The pilot, however, hadn't. The minute the last man had disappeared, the pilot handed over a radio, and Alex hopped off the helicopter. There was no way they were keeping him out of this operation. He was going to see it all the way to the end.

He spent half an hour following in the footsteps of the soldiers ahead of him. At one point, the last person in the group, Eagle, seemed to catch sight of him but either he hadn't or pretended he hadn't. They ran across three Scorpia agents, all of whom were shot before they could fire back. This team wasn't taking any chances under the circumstances that had brought them here. None of them had much trouble with it, not after knowing who the person that had brought them the information was and how he had come upon the information.

Someone bumped into Alex, and the gun he had been given almost put a bullet in the person before he recognized the face and the voice whispering "Don't shoot!"

"Damn it, Lowe!" he hissed. Johnson was right beside the captain, and waved with a grin. "Alright, code phrase?"

Johnson started to repeat the movement of spreading his legs, aiming his hands, and said, "These-!"

Alex cut him off. "Good enough, don't need to repeat that." He raised his voice, and whispered, "Eagle!" No response. "Hey, Eagle!" The FFSAS man turned around, caught sight of the three behind him, and waved. He poked Wolf beside him, and pointed back. Wolf glanced in that direction, and said something to the rest of the group. Alex, Lowe, and Johnson caught up with the rest of the group.

* * *

><p>Ben's eyebrows scrunched together. Beckett started to say something, but Ben didn't notice. "I mean, he might, but I don't think the medics will let him go."<p>

* * *

><p>"What did we say about you coming along," one of the Delta Force medics said.<p>

"That it was inevitable?"

"That we would murder you if you did," Snake corrected.

"Must've slipped my memory."

Wolf ignored them and asked Lowe, "Where's everyone else?"

"Some of us split up into different groups and went different directions," Lowe replied, "but the main group stayed in one spot. We're acting as scouts for you guys. We'll get you back to that group, and everyone else should get the memo."

"How?"

Johnson pulled out something from his pocket. "This." It was a small black circle. "Sorta like what they use at restaurants sometimes to tell you you're table's ready. We just have to get back to the main group, and they'll activate it for everyone. Once it vibrates, we all report back."

"Then let's report," Eagle cheerfully said, and following Lowe, the group walked back to the ramshackle headquarter setup.

* * *

><p>Ben sighed. "There's no use worrying about him. The kid's going to do what he's going to do. Damn, did they <em>have<em> to leave me behind?"

"They left all of us behind," Beckett pointed out. "Maybe your unit figured it would be best this way. I mean, if he happens to get injured-" Ben's expression froze, and she winced, realizing that might not have been the right way to phrase it "-…which I'm sure he won't, but on the off chance he does, you won't have to feel guilty about it." Definitely was not the right thing to say. "Um, maybe they thought you should try and clear up the court case, like we're doing. I mean, there really is no chance of him getting injured. He'll probably stay in the helicopter like he's supposed to."

"Even if he does, something'll probably happen and he'll get involved anyway."

"…Oh." Beckett shot a glance down the hallway, near where Castle was leaning against the wall. He was waiting down there for one of the military officers to tell them they were ready to begin. Esposito and Ryan were elsewhere on the phone, keeping contact with the department and listening for any new information. "Well… He knows how to fight and shoot… Even if he gets involved, he should come out okay. I mean, he even died and he still got out alright… Well, more alright than anyone would've suspected…" _She _suspected she should stop talking now.

Castle came to her aid. "And the rest of your unit is watching out for him, and it sounds like your medic won't let anyone touch him. I already feel sorry for anyone who goes near him."

Ben didn't respond.

Beckett switched the topic. "So… You really think we can clear him just on this one go?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I think there's a good chance, all things considered. They might not completely drop it immediately, but… I think it shouldn't take too long."

"You haven't been in many court cases, have you?" she dryly noted.

"None, actually. Ignorance showing through?"

A door opened down by where Castle had been standing. An officer waved at them, and gestured for them to come in. Ben looked at him for a moment, and then strode purposefully down the hall. With an exhale of air, he entered the court room. Beckett and Castle exchanged a look, and then followed him inside.

A desk sat in front of five high-ranking military officers. Ben couldn't see their ranks from his place. A judge sat among them, the most impassive of all six. Apparently, the jury had been abandoned, or had never been alerted that they were even on the jury bench. After all, this technically was never taking place to begin with. They weren't going to deal with all the legalities of such things.

Which was just fine with him. Either way, he should be able to play his cards right.

* * *

><p>They'd already agreed that Ben couldn't present the case. He couldn't work the system as well as Beckett could. It had been a general decision that they weren't going to include any lawyers. The legal things weren't going to matter here. It was a matter of whether or not the officers and judge could be convinced of his guilt or slight innocence. If it were the first, he likely wouldn't see the light of day again. No one needed a murderous trained spy running around the world. If it were the last one, the whole situation would be buried and forgotten about.<p>

As for what Alex would do… Ben sighed to himself. He had no idea what his ex-partner would do once he got back and found the charges at the minimal. He _could_ go back into espionage, but would he want to? And if he did, would K-Unit let him? Ben himself was going to put his foot down, he was sure of that. But if he didn't do that, then what would he do? Would he go back to school? _Could_ he? The school had been told he'd moved, and Ben had told Tom he'd died.

The formalities were concluded, and Ben started paying attention. "Alex Rider is currently under suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder and illegal immigration. What does the defense have to say about this?"

Ben hoped she would go along with the plan. They had no chance of denying the point, so their best bet was to get the time down. Glancing over, Ben saw Castle crossing his fingers under the desk. Beckett stood and addressed the judges. "Four days ago, he arrived here by plane under an alias. He came in from South Africa where, for the past several months, he has been under the captivity of the terrorist organization Scorpia. He and the other prisoners, about a dozen of them, were able to make plans together of escape. Part of the plan involved sending two people here, to New York City, to stop a bombing that Scorpia was planning. A bomb was to go off in the Statue of Liberty, and it and some other things were to cause America and France to go to war. Alex was among the two who were going to be sent here." She delved further into the plan.

Ben tilted his head slightly, watching the proceedings. Castle did the same. At the moment, while Beckett set down necessary groundwork for their case, emotions would not tell the end result. The officers were shooting each other discreet glances, gauging each other's reactions. One just sat there, eyebrows raised in an impressed manner. This was good. Those were the necessary reactions for the beginning.

"Although he had all this to accomplish, a lot for a teenager, there was a second plan Alex suggested. It was unrelated to the bombing, and was something personal for him. Most of the people worked with him, and agreed to his second idea." Beckett paused here, and then jumped from one thing to another in a way that suggested she would come back to this. "He arrived on plane, alone, as his partner for this was unable to join him due to a wound he received in their escape and the backup disappeared. He rented a room with a computer, and then went out to spy on the bomb site. He spent almost two full days watching the Scorpia team so he would be ready when they set the bomb. In the mean time, he also sent out the message to the gang requesting the murder. When the bomb was set, Alex stole the bomb and brought it to the police headquarters-" one of the officer's jaws fell open, and Castle just barely contained a laugh "-where it could be dismantled," Beckett quickly added. "He wasn't trying to blow up the building." The jaw went back up. "His worry was a Scorpia member would be in the bomb disposal squad, and would activate the bomb at the site if they were sent out there. If he brought it to the building then they would be forced to deactivate it."

"Why didn't he just move it somewhere else?" the judge asked.

"The Scorpia member would be able to make a call to request that someone move another bomb in to place before arriving at the scene. They didn't have time to if he brought it to them. One of the others from the squad would've noticed their absence." Moving on, she continued, "Unfortunately for him, my homicide investigation team and I had been looking into the gang case for a while. Our leak from inside had been able to give us a picture, as one of the gang members had stopped by and looked into him. As he was leaving the scene of the "attempted bombing", we received the message from the leak and went after him. He was brought back into the building, this time in handcuffs, and we brought him to an interrogation room. He didn't anything immediately, and we searched his record. MI6 moved in, and said they were sending someone down to explain the situation."

She waved back at Ben, who resisted the urge to wave back. "They didn't mention that the men they were sending down, K-Unit from the Special Air Service, hadn't been told about the complete situation. However, Fox-or Benjamin Daniels- from K-Unit had been Alex's partner during most of his time in MI6. I believe you all read the files, so you should know the background behind their last mission together." Ben winced, even though he knew it had been necessary to say. "Upon their arrival, Richard Castle, consultant, and I had been talking to Alex again. Admittedly, we'd been more than a bit frustrated with the lack of information that we were being told. Upon hearing that MI6 knew about his whereabouts and that they were sending someone down, Alex… well, panicked. He made it out the door at the same time K-Unit arrived. Fox was shot by a sniper and Alex was stabbed by an assassin, who was shot and stabbed by both of them seconds later."

Out of the corner of Castle's eye, he saw a flicker of pride go across Ben's face. One of the officers raised an eyebrow, a little amused by the word choice of the assassin's death.

"They were both rushed to the hospital, and Alex woke up during a time when almost none of us were there. He and Fox exchanged words, however, and explained the remaining bits that had confused us." Beckett took a deep breath, and Ben steadied himself. "The gang had been hired by Alex to kill him. His death was going to look like Scorpia went after him for stopping the bomb. Scorpia would, of course, claim credit when his body was discovered in a public place like Alex had requested. Word would move throughout agencies around the world and, in particular, to MI6. Scorpia's next target would, inevitably, be Fox. Alex was going to use his body as a warning."

It hurt to hear the words, but the second she said them, Ben could see she had sold it. The deal was done. It was obvious just by looking at the table. Reduced jail time was a definite decision.

"Why would he be the next target?" the officer to the far left of the table asked.

"Because the original trade that Scorpia and Agents Rider and Daniels all took part in was that Daniels was traded for Rider. If Rider came out, then Daniels would have to go back in," the police detective explained. Nobody spoke, and she sighed. "Look…" she started, and the political talk and mask fell to the ground. She spoke from her heart. "The kid's been used as a spy for years. MI6 pulled him in a few times, and then other agencies started to do the same. He's got more scars, mentally and physically, than the majority of adults do. He's seen people get killed, he's killed, and people have tried to kill him. That's not a life that anyone should be living, especially not a sixteen year old who hasn't even finished school yet. He's done. And he should be. The kid was about to kill himself to save someone else. I guess you could say that was suicide, and I know people say that's a weak way to get out of your life, but… In this case? I can't honestly say I know anyone who could even start to do what Alex has managed and accomplished. He didn't do it because he wanted to, he did it because he felt he _needed_ to. He hired a gang because he felt he had to save the life of someone who saved his. Why should he be punished for that? Why should he be put in prison for trying to save Fox's life? Are you going to condemn a teenager for doing something in a world that he shouldn't be in?"

Silence encompassed the room. Beckett was aware that every eye in the room was firmly fixed on her.

"We'll take a recess," the judge said quietly, but everyone heard. Castle and Ben stood, and the writer started to speak as Beckett walked toward them. But before he could say anything, she was out the room with the door swinging closed behind her. The two men exchanged glances and followed.

* * *

><p>Beckett was gone by the time they got out, and the two sat down on a bench outside the room. It was the same one Ben and Beckett had waited on beforehand. Esposito and Ryan came by, and the first reported, "Helicopters are pulling out now. They're heading back here. No casualties, except on the other side. The prisoners managed to keep everyone alive, although for the life of me I cannot figure out how the hell they managed that under those circumstances. They should be back here by the end of the day."<p>

Ryan examined their expressions. "So? What happened?"

"I think… it's over." Castle glanced at Ben, who nodded in agreement. "Whether that's good or bad, though, I can't say. Beckett pushed them, but… I don't know if she pushed them too far or just enough. But damn, I felt guilty just sitting in there listening," he admitted.

"What'd she say?" Esposito asked.

"Tell you later," Beckett said, coming up behind him. "One of the guards alerted me that the officers and judge decided we'd all just take this break to have lunch. We'll finish it up at one. Let's go grab some food."

Castle stood, and he shot a glance at Beckett's tired look before walking off with the other detectives. She started to follow them, but Ben stopped her by sticking an arm out. He paused, and then said, "Thanks."

Beckett nodded, and the two left. There were no other words that needed to be exchanged.

* * *

><p>"Alright," the judge said. "Do you have anything else to present?"<p>

"No, Your Honor," Beckett said.

"And the defendant admits to the crimes?"

"Yes, Your Honor."

"One more question, and then I think we're done. Where is he at this time?"

"He was assisting with the retrieval of the other agents and soldiers in South Africa, but during the break we received word that the mission had gone successfully and that they were all flying back."

The judge looked at the officers, who, one after another from left to right, nodded and said, "Same."

The judge nodded as well, and turned to the remaining three in the room. "Then we have reached a unanimous verdict."

* * *

><p>Cliffie! Oh, you hate me, don't you? ^.^<p>


	13. Chapter 12

So, you know how I keep mentioning what they're going to do after this is all done? (There's more of it in this chapter.) Sorry if you're getting tired of it, but this is me trying to figure out how to end this. And I finally got a solution by talking to my mom, who didn't even say anything, and coming up with an idea. An idea you will all hate me for, most likely, but it's better than the suggestion I got from two friends, Writer With Sprite and Torn Apart Paper Dinosaur. Shout out to those two for helping me! Thanks! (But I am _not_ locking Alex in a closet, you two! Everyone else: don't ask.)

* * *

><p>The homicide team and Ben were quietly talking when K-Unit and Alex made their triumphant return. Eagle dropped on to the floor beside the desks, and dropped his arms onto one. His head fell on top of them. "How're you five doing on this charming day?" he asked, grinning.<p>

"And so you return," Ben noted. "I trust a certain teenager stayed out of trouble and behind the line?" he asked Snake as he passed his chair. The medic snorted in reply, pulling up a chair.

Wolf rolled his eyes. "If the line were on the other side of a gunfight, then, yeah, he was behind the line and in the middle of the gunfight."

Alex grinned while Ben gave him a disapproving look. He turned to his unit leader. "He didn't do anything stupid, did he?" Wolf raised an eyebrow. "_Outrageously_ stupid."

Wolf looked at Alex, who innocently peered at the ceiling. "Well…" he slowly said.

Ben sighed. "Never mind. I don't think I want to know."

"So…" Snake asked. "Where were you? Thought you were going to man the communications."

The humor dropped from Fox and the four police officers. Ben looked a bit like a kid who got caught handling the vase he wasn't supposed to handle and then broke. He made an awkward sound in his throat. "We… well…" He looked at Castle and Beckett for support, while Esposito and Ryan tried to distance themselves and deny any involvement. "We sorta messed up, but…" Wolf raised a confused eyebrow. "Um, there's good news and there's bad news…"

"News about what?" Alex asked. Ben winced.

"The charges…" he muttered. Alex looked surprised, but he was the only one who heard what was said.

"What?" Eagle asked.

"You took care of the legal stuff with the court?" Alex looked between his previous partner and the detectives. "Why the heck didn't you wait for us to get back?"

"We…" Castle started. He sighed. "We wanted to surprise you when you got back, so that you wouldn't have to deal with this stuff, but… It sort of went as planned, and sort of didn't. But it's over either way you look at it, I guess."

Wolf sighed, and shook his head, irritated by their dodging of the questions. Snake jumped in. "So? What happened?" None of them spoke up. "Oh come on, you said there was good news too. It can't be that bad."

Beckett gave an uncharacteristic snort. "The good news was pretty odd, I'll say that much." When no one offered to take the story from her, she continued. "We spent less than half an hour with the opening stuff, and then they took a recess. When they came back in, they asked a few questions, but they already had a conclusion." She paused. "You want the good news or the bad news first?"

"Bad news. If it's terrible, then finishing with the good news gives you all a higher survival chance."

Ben said, "I'm so glad you're thinking of us." In a rush, he said, "They're putting you in foster care."

Silence descended. Eagle and Wolf exchanged stunned looks, while Esposito and Ryan inched away again, looking down. Ben waited for the response with Castle and Beckett. Snake went blank. Montgomery, having seen what was going on from his office, made it look like he was busy. Maybe they'd keep him out of this.

"Huh." A silent exhale went through half of the group at the sound Alex made. "Good news? Limited time?"

Castle laughed. "You kidding? Despite the fact that you had no passport and obvious proof pointing towards the gang attempted-murder, I now have a fondness of military courts because they came out and said…" He paused for dramatic effect. " 'Not guilty.' "*

Eagle burst out laughing. "Are you serious?"

"Completely," Beckett agreed. "In all my time, I've never seen anything like this happen. But then, we've never dealt with MI6 or FFSAS before, or had a lunatic teenager running circles around everyone involved." Alex grinned with no sense of modesty.

Snake looked at him. "So… What now?"

Alex cocked his head. "Hm. Don't know."

"When does he have to go down to talk with foster care by?" Wolf asked Fox, who shrugged.

Alex snorted. "Uh huh, no." At everyone's expressions, he rolled his eyes. "Look, get real. Yes, they decided I would be going down to foster care, but…" He shook his head. "Not happening. I'll find another route to take. They're not deciding my life for me. Besides, then I'd probably end up staying here, and while it's nice, it's not England. Also, I don't want to test out the public foster care. Doesn't sound fun, thank you very much. Anyone got a better idea?"

"And you're going to get around foster care…how?" Esposito asked, entering once the storm jumped over the house without spilling an inch of Hell.

Alex looked at him like he was an idiot. "Dude. MI6. Need I say more? Hell, I'm surprised you guys didn't just ask Hawson to blow this whole thing under the rug. I know word got out about the case and that people were expecting someone to get caught, but you didn't really need to go through the normal path to get this done."

Ben exchanged an exasperated and harried look with Beckett.

Alex gave a surprisingly soft smile. "But thanks. It was still a nice surprise to come back to."

Ben smiled back, and then remembered something after a moment. "Ah! By the way, speaking of Hawson, he said that you're off MI6."

Alex raised a challenging eyebrow. "Oh did he now?"

"_Yes_," all the adults firmly said. He leaned back, holding up both hands defensively.

"Hey, how would you three know? You weren't even here," he said to most of the K-Unit.

Snake glared at him. "Because even if he didn't, we will all track you down and stick your butt back in school if you go anywhere near another mission for _any_ agency before you're eighteen. Do not press your luck on seeing if we're joking."

"Um, yeah, I think I can pass on that…" Alex frowned, looking at the ceiling. "Either way… What now?"

Beckett sighed. "Well, you've got a whole life ahead of you to think about that question. Welcome to our world."

Ryan cocked his head. "Hey, where did the rest of the agents and soldiers from the compound go?"

Snake gestured. "They were all taken to the hospital for treatment. They were protesting quite adamantly, but they were in bad condition. I assume their superiors are flying in from around the world to debrief them and get statements. I think, judging from the amount of information they said they heard from the guards, Scorpia's going down for good. After three missions of theirs were foiled by a teen** and this information comes out, there's no way they can keep standing. The worry now is who's going to pick up the competition now that they're out of the game."

Beckett nodded. "Isn't that the way of the world," she stated. "Destroy one demon, and three more show up." She looked at K-Unit. "What're you four going to do now? Head back to England, I assume? Not staying here for our lovely weather."

Eagle grinned. "If Wolf stays away from England for too long, it'll thaw out and New York will get the crappy weather." He got a swat over the head for that.

"Someone hasn't seen our spring showers," Castle said. ***

"Yep, it's good ol' Brecon Beacons for us," Fox agreed. "Can't ever get it out our hearts. Mostly because the sergeant yells at us so much that we lose hearing and he gives us brain damage, so the love has to go somewhere else."

"Love for what? Crappy food? Angry drill sergeants?" Eagle snorted. "Oh, I know! Comradeship, which is clearly demonstrated when we all grab our guns and snipe at each other in the forest with paintball guns."

Snake nodded solemnly. "That sounds like Hell to me."

Eagle mock-whispered, "We call it that with love, of course."

"Note to self, don't get caught over there," Castle said, making a check on an imaginary list.

Wolf leaned back in his chair. "What're you going to do when this is over?"

"What we've always done," Beckett replied. "Catch the bad guys and keep the good ones safe. Although it was fun, I'd appreciate it if I didn't have to deal with anymore spies dropping trouble in, though."

Alex smiled. "I'll try my best."

"When do you think you'll all head back?" Castle asked. Montgomery looked out from his office, and saw that it was now a safe zone. He deflated, relieved, and went back to his work. Oh how the papers had piled up ever since his homicide team had picked up the gang case…

Wolf shrugged. "I'll call in to the sergeant and see what he says. Work's done here, and I can't think of anything else that we need to do."

"I want to see Central Park," Fox said at the same time Snake said, "Can we look at the Statue of Liberty?" and Eagle stated, "We're going to the Empire State building first!" Wolf sighed, knowing there would be no argument to dissuade them.

"One day of sightseeing," he firmly said. "One day. We're on active duty, and I don't want to be mauled by superiors."

"We could give you a tour!" Ryan said, not looking at his desk where there was paperwork waiting to be signed, filled out, and/or filed. "Weekend's coming up, and we'll have some free time." Esposito nodded, also ignoring his desk. Beckett, on the other hand, was looking mournfully at hers.

Alex raised a hand. "Mind if I come along? Last time I was here, the only thing I saw was the airport while the CIA was talking to me. Not much of a visit, really."

"The more the merrier," Beckett cheerfully said, making a decision, and putting her paperwork on hold. Esposito made a cheering movement, as if he were congratulating her on joining them in their procrastination. Ryan pretended to clap. She wisely ignored them.

"Hey, we've got the rest of today, and I assume that's not included in your 'one-day' offer," Castle said to Wolf. "With today and tomorrow, we can get a lot in." He grabbed his jacket. "Up for a tour now?"

"What else are we going to do?" Eagle remarked. "Let's go!"

Montgomery pretended not to see them leave.

* * *

><p>The next day, Saturday, the group made their final stop at Central Park. Through a lot of walking and short-cut taking, they had managed to at least take a look at everything they wanted to see. Wolf had held off on calling the sergeant until around lunch that day, and he had told them to catch a plane tomorrow. That was fine with them, so long as they could find a hotel to camp out at. While it was manageable for them, sleeping in a park would not be preferable.<p>

"Okay, should we split up?" Beckett asked the group. "There's a lot, and everyone can see what they want to that way."

Eagle gave small cheer. "Yep, we can figure out maps on our own! Whoop, this is going to be fun." Wolf looked at the sky and sighed at his teammate.

"Alright, it's three thirty now," he said. "How long would you guess that it'll take for us to go through everything?" he asked Beckett.

She shrugged. "Depends on how much you want to see, but it can quite a while."

"Hm. Everyone's got a watch or phone, so there's no excuse not to check it for the time. Let's all meet back here at six thirty and then head to dinner," he suggested. No one disagreed, and they split up. Castle and Beckett wandered off, pretending not to notice they had gone with each other, while Eagle split from his unit and joined the other two detectives. They were still talking energetically when Snake and Wolf, the only two mature ones it seemed, left on their own path. Alex and Ben looked at each other, shrugged without complaint, and went the opposite direction.

When the others' voices had faded long ago and their footsteps were the only sounds beside what nature made, Alex dryly asked, "Still climbing trees?" He looked at the branches overhead, which Ben was also watching, as if evaluating the best route up.

Ben snorted. "Duh. How else am I supposed to avoid Snake's henning when I get injured or Eagle's psychotic-ness?"

"Sheer will power?" Alex's voice got quiet. "You haven't gotten injured much, have you?"

Ben shook his head, and rubbed Alex's in a gesture that, under any other circumstances, would've been greatly protested against. "Nah, I've been fine. Line of work's dangerous of course, but working as a team lowers the danger instead of just going in alone."

"It sure does," Alex said, "even when it's just four instead of two."

Ben's mouth quirked into a smile. "I think you underestimate yourself. My survival chances didn't increase all that much after going from our team back to K-Unit." A companionable silence passed before he spoke again, this time much more solemnly. "Alex… you were awake, weren't you?"

Alex sighed when he realized there was no way of getting out of this conversation. "I… Yeah. I was. I didn't want to talk to you at first, because I figured… well… I didn't know how much you knew or had figured out. And I wanted to get back to sleep," he admitted after a pause in between the last two sentences.

Ben looked slightly amused. "Sorry for ruining that for you." He sighed. "I'd hoped you weren't."

Alex exhaled. "I know. Sorry about… well… Sorry about freaking you out."

Now Ben looked ticked. " 'Freaking me out'? 'Freaking me out'? Al, what the hell were you thinking?" Alex opened his mouth to reply, but missed his chance. "I thought we made an agreement that you wouldn't go after me. You_promised._"

"When was that?"

"Don't play innocent with me. About a month before I was caught, we had a very specific discussion about Scorpia."

"Oh?"

"Yes, right after the nuke incident in-"

"Oh…"

"Right. And I remember making you promise that if anything of the sort happened, you would not do something stupid. We listed off a bunch of things that qualified under 'stupid', and trading ourselves was one of them!"

Alex glared at him. "Hypocrite."

Ben narrowed his eyes. "What was that?"

"Hypocrite. You made the same promise, and you broke it too." Ben went from angry to confused. "The guards loved to torture us psychologically. It wasn't like they had anything else to do. Every time you tried to contact Scorpia they told me. You tried to trade yourself back in."

"Of course!" Now he knew what he was talking about.

"You bastard. Why couldn't you just stay out of it?" Alex demanded. A slight pleading note had entered his voice. "I knew the decision I had made. How many people do you think pulled me aside and warned me against 'doing something stupid', huh? Just about everyone I met. It wasn't a rash decision. Yours was. It's a good thing it didn't work." He sped up, leaving Ben behind.

His arm was grabbed, and he whipped around violently. But he was stopped in his tracks, and Ben took this chance to tell his partner something he had meaning to say for a long time. Firmly, eliminating any way for Alex to speak up while he said his piece, Ben stated, "You're a child."

Alex's jaw dropped.

"I don't care what you say or how you act. You're more mature than a lot of adults. You know the cost of a comfortable life, the cost that some people don't pay for themselves. You've paid it yourself, for you and countless others. I don't want to know the number of how many people in all you've saved, because it would be scary to know how many people would've died if you hadn't been there. Blunt never should've pulled you over to Brecon Beacons to train for your first mission, because he never should've used you at all. I know that you knew that he was wrong, but I think you forgot at some point why he was wrong. No matter how much experience or maturity you have, you're a child. You should have that innocence of your age, and we both know there's none of it left. But because you don't, because you grew up too fast, you're a lot more ignorant than you realize. You've never had to care for yourself long term because you have never known if you would live in the short term. You disregard a social identity because you know the dark side of people, and that makes you oblivious to the light side of people a lot.

"You know why people are supposed to have parents or at least older siblings? So they can learn from them. You never had enough time to learn from yours to know how you're supposed to live a life. Alex, you can't spend the rest of your days chasing down terrorists. You just can't. It's not right by any standards. Anyone would deserve more than that, and everyone deserves a little peace. If there's any to be had, you of all people should have some. Yet every chance that's offered to you that could get you out of this you turn down and ignore. Why do you think MI6 gave you a partner, huh? They'd never done anything like that before. The hell with backup, too. They gave you a partner because you stopped being human. Al, this isn't… It's not…" Ben gave an exasperated sigh and rubbed his face. "You have to stop. Now. You should've stopped before. I don't know why no one's told you this before. This is just… This whole situation's wrong. It's messed up. No matter how good you are, you have to stop working in espionage. Get out. Leave it alone. Let someone else handle it. You need to live the life you were going to before any of this happened. I know it might be hard, but… I'm… I'm afraid you'll go back in, and when you get lost again, I won't be able to save you a second time."

Alex stared at him long and hard for a full minute. Ben's rant was done, and he inwardly winced. He probably had been a bit harsher than he should've been.

Then Alex smiled. He held up three fingers. "Wrong on three accounts." Ben raised an eyebrow, stunned. What? Maybe the fit of anger came later… "As for the dark side of people, yeah, I'll admit to that bit. But I do see the light side once in a while." He tapped Ben on the nose with one of the fingers while the elder man blinked. "I see yours. For the second account, I've got parents and an older sibling to learn from. I just don't think he realizes he combined them all into himself. As for the third one…" he said, while Ben figured out what he meant on the second part. "You saved me a lot more than two times, but I'd prefer it if you let me even the score."

Ben took on his own smile. "I think you already have."

Alex shook his head, doubting it, and interrupting Ben's protest he said, "How about we both promise not to add another tally? You stay out of trouble, I stay out of trouble."

"Let's see how long this promise lasts," Ben snorted.

Alex laughed. "So says the FFSAS man. Don't make me come out into the middle of the desert trying to cover your butt."

"That'd be embarrassing. Please don't," Ben replied, also laughing. They started walking again, and Alex checked his watch. They'd passed an hour away. Ben glanced casually out of the corner of his eye, and glimpsed something. "Hey, Alex?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't get mad-"

"Uh oh."

"-but…" For the second time, Ben grabbed the teen and yanked him backwards, but this time he pulled Alex behind himself, acting like a shield. Before Alex could process it and respond, Ben jerked in a spasm.

"Wha-Ben!" he yelled.

Ben staggered, letting go of Alex, and falling to his knees. Alex dropped down beside him, not having to look hard to find the quickly spreading blood coming from Ben's chest. He wavered, and fell on to his side. Alex frantically put his hands on the wound, trying to keep the blood from coming out as best as he could. "Ben!" he yelled again. "Hey! Pay attention!" Ben wasn't looking at him. He stared up at the trees instead, and his gaze looked fuzzy. "Listen! Can you hear me? Ben!" To anyone within hearing distance, he shouted, "Someone get an ambulance!"

"Ben!"

* * *

><p>*I took that from a Mentalist episode, I'll admit. The guy goes up there, completely admits to murdering this one guy, and says he has the right to do so because *bleep* (not giving away what happened). Jury comes out a few minutes later: "Not guilty!" Oh, I do love the Mentalist. This fic is like an advertisement for homicide shows…<p>

** Like most Alex Rider Fanfiction writers, I am conveniently forgetting that Scorpia Rising ever took place. ^.^

***I have. In fact, I got dumped on with the rest of my family while we were there. And then we stopped in some Chinese restaurant and got hot tea. Oh, and Tsuki was in a broken wheelchair that we all had to carry. Fun times, fun times…

Foster care was Writer With Sprite and Torn Apart Paper Dinosaur's idea. Um, I sorta cut it out though… Sorry to anyone who wanted to see that, _but_, I am writing a side bit that will not be posted and will have that in it. If you want to see it, let me know and I can send it over. (Sprite, Dinosaur, you two are getting it sent to you anyway because you wanted to see it so much.) Um, and by the way, the sniper was not my idea… *points at TAPD* *runs*


	14. Chapter 13

Okay, inappropriate joke. Somebody has _got_ to change the name of 'crock pot'. What _is_ a crock pot anyway? And it sounds like two different words, and neither can be used in polite conversation. Say it wrong one way and you're saying, "Hey, I need a crack pot." Drugs are bad, people. The other way: "Hey, I need a crotch pot." That's just wrong.

I'm sorry. Anyway. (This is my fic of seriousness and inappropriate jokes, apparently.) So, I'll bet you're pissed from the way I ended that last one, huh? Which is why I present… the next one.

Somebody, an anonymous reviewer, asked for the foster care story. Whoever you are, you told me your id was Thank You. I couldn't find it. However, it's not written yet either, because I've had so much to work on. But if you want it on the off chance I can get around to it, be aware I couldn't find your id.

* * *

><p>At the predetermined time, the two teams met back up at the spot they had left from. They intermingled, talking cheerfully. After all, they had all just had a good day and they were about to get food. Who wouldn't be happy?<p>

They gave the last pair ten minutes before they started getting impatient. "They did have a watch or phone, right?" Beckett asked Wolf, who shrugged.

"I thought they did. Besides, if they didn't, they could just ask, ri-"

"Sh!" Snake hissed.

"What?" Esposito asked.

No one spoke, and listened for whatever Snake had heard.

"Ambulance sirens," the medic murmured worriedly. "Think it could have anything to do with them?"

"Let's wait and see if they get closer. If they do, we'll go check it out," Wolf stated. There were no disagreements.

"Should some of us stay behind in case they're not involved and show up?" Eagle suggested, trying to stay on the optimistic side of things. Again, there was no response, and the sirens did indeed come closer. As one, they headed towards the sound.

It took them fifteen minutes to get in the area, and by then the ambulances were already gone. However, even after the sirens disappeared they only had to look for the crowd of people to find their epicenter. People were milling around, muttering about what they had heard from others.

Castle tapped someone on the shoulder. "Hey, what happened?"

The man shrugged. "From what I'm hearing, someone was pulled out on an ambulance. Was bleeding, I think. I don't know why."

Someone else, hearing that, nodded and added, "Yeah, I was here before the ambulances came. The guy looked like he'd been shot in the chest or something. There was a kid with him. Thought he was the guy's son, but their ages were too close. Maybe a brother. Terrible luck, seeing that happen."

"Seeing what happen?" Beckett asked.

The woman shrugged. "I don't know, but I heard one of the paramedics say it looked like a gunshot wound."

The group exchanged glances.

"I think you need to call Fox," Beckett said to Wolf, who already had his phone out as she spoke the words.

* * *

><p>Wolf sat uneasily down next to Alex. He barely knew the kid. What was he doing? Their first encounter had been less than pleasant, and it had only gone downhill from there until their most recent meeting. Even then they had never spoken to each other, only as a group.<p>

Be that as it may, the teen was Fox's partner just as much as Fox was Wolf's. Through the line of succession, since Fox couldn't, it was down to Wolf to help.

"Um…" he muttered, and then strengthened his voice. "Cub…" The teen made no response, and his head remained buried and hidden in his hands. Wolf tried to speak, but didn't know what to say. A companionable silence would be nice right around now, but between the two of them, it wasn't going to happen.

Alex, in a way, saved him. "I'm sorry," he said, and the mournful words came out muffled through his hands.

Wolf looked down at the back of his head. "There's nothing you have to be sorry for. A heard a witness talking to the police. He protected you, and he wouldn't have had it any other way." Cub didn't respond, and Wolf sighed almost inaudibly. He hated these sorts of talks. But really, looking at the kid… He needed one. "You know… Or maybe you don't, I guess… He tried to go after you while you were in Scorpia's hold. That bit on its own isn't helpful, I know, but it took him months before he thought you were dead. Everyone else wrote you off immediately. He didn't. But if you could go back, would you do everything you did all over again? Would you trade yourself for him, even knowing what it would cost you?"

Cub looked up and stared at him. Without hesitation, he said, "I'd do it all over again."

Wolf nodded. "From what he said, I have no doubt. After he came to the conclusion you were gone, he retired from MI6 and moved back to FFSAS. As you know, he rejoined our unit. We asked… to be honest, we were kinda begging by the end, for him to tell us what was wrong. He was… off. Not in a way like he had seen something, but more like something had happened. We were worried." He paused, and then honestly said, "We were also worried about his sanity, especially if he had lost his mind from whatever had happened, because we were sleeping in the same cabin. Way to increase trust between comrades." Alex gave the smallest of smiles at the small joke. Wolf went back to his point. "Whatever was wrong, he wouldn't share. And the more he denied it, the more we worried. Finally, it became too much, and I may have done the stupidest thing of my entire career. I went to the sergeant for help. Admittedly, it worked, but we may be scarred for life." Alex raised an eyebrow. "Fox yelled at us, we yelled back, and finally I took it too far without thinking, and he left. Not the unit, just the cabin," he quickly said at Cub's puzzled expression. It cleared. "It took a few more hours, but…" He sighed. "He told us what happened."

Alex looked back down at the hospital's carpet. Wolf continued talking. "I don't know if you know how much you meant to him. Before he told us what was wrong, he told us about how reckless and creative and brash and thoughtful you were. Spent about five minutes just talking about how you'd been when you were alive." He gave a humorless laugh. "Man, I'll admit. All of us were probably thinking the same thing. We really felt his pain when he told us what you did. Well, I guess we felt a portion of it. I can't imagine what you put him through by pulling that, but-"

"He already gave me the 'being-stupid' talk."

"I was wondering when he would. I can't speak for the others, but before he mentioned the trade you made… I really wanted to meet you. None of us give praise lightly, and he was ecstatic when he spoke about you. Almost like he was talking about a family member." Cub shifted. "You said you'd trade yourself for him again if you did it all over again. From how he spoke about you, there's nothing he wouldn't have done differently either. Don't be upset about what happened. He wanted to save you."

Cub shifted uncomfortably again.

Wolf sighed quietly, doubting he'd helped at all. He really wasn't good at this, and he didn't like it either. He liked working with guys like the ones from the FFSAS because they never had problems like these, and if they did, it was on rare occasions. He suspected that, remarkably, this teenager was the same. Fox had described him perfectly. Wolf really had wanted to meet him, and now that he had, he wasn't disappointed. He'd had a warning, and he was still amazed.

He hesitated, and then in a manner he hoped was reassuringly, he rubbed Cub's back once. He stood up, hoping he'd done some good, and left to see if there was any news.

* * *

><p>It turned out there was. Without even having to call down, he met Detective Esposito walking down the corridor. They moved out of the way of what small traffic there was, and compared notes.<p>

Wolf said, "The doctors say it's too early to tell about Fox right now. He's obviously in bad shape." He paused, and then said, "So's the kid."

Esposito sighed. "As this goes on, I feel more sorry for the kid. He can't take much more of this. There's nobody who can. Your friend did a lot for him." As an added bit under his breath, he said, "But it's looking like he's the only one who did. Damn his employers."

Wolf nodded in agreement. "Did you catch the sniper?"

"Yeah." Esposito grimaced. "You're not going to like what we found out."

"I'll bet I won't. What was it?"

He grimaced again. "The sniper wasn't from Scorpia." Wolf frowned. "Actually, he was from right here in New York City." Understanding dawned on the other man's expression. "Yeah. The gang came to do what they were paid for. Found the kid and tried to take him down. The sniper panicked when he missed, and tried to leave too quickly. We were able to find him by looking at the security cameras. Oh God, what are we going to tell him?" he rhetorically asked, referring to Alex.

Wolf paused. "Don't," he said with finality. "Let him think it was Scorpia. We'll tell the others not to let him know. He's already upset because he thinks he put Fox in danger by leaving the compound, but if we tell him it was the gang filling out his request…"

Esposito winced. "Yeah, I'll let them know. Where's the rest of your unit?"

"Snake's helping the doctor's with Fox, and generally watching over him, and I think Eagle's helping the department."

"And if he's not?" Esposito asked, having not seen him.

"Then he's running around New York like a freaking idiot," Wolf growled, not even wanting to think about that possibility. Things were bad enough as it was without having to chase one of his own across the city for no known reason.

Esposito left it at that. "They sent me down to tell you that in person and hear what was going on. If you don't mind, I'll just stay in case anything shows up with him."

Wolf shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me. You going to call down and deliver the message or will I?"

"I'll do it, since Beckett wants me to report back anyway." Esposito flipped out his phone, and dialed a number. As Wolf walked away, he heard Esposito start reporting what they had discussed to Beckett. Although they had definitely gotten off on the wrong foot, Wolf felt his relations with the female detective were better off. At least, she wasn't going to murder him if he did the slightest thing she disliked. He guessed that they'd both recognized qualities in each other that were similar to ones they carried. The major distance was that Wolf didn't have any stalkers who were obviously interested in him, and he interested in them. He was a little surprised there had been no happy announcement about the two yet.

Setting that thought aside, he arrived back at Fox's hospital room. Alex had abandoned the seat, and Wolf could see his back through the window. The teen looked up and said something to Snake, who was leaving, and the medic nodded in agreement. He shut the blinds, and then closed the door behind him when he exited. Snake caught sight of Wolf, and joined him outside the door.

"The kid asked me to close the blinds," he said quietly, confirming what Wolf had assumed. "Not for privacy. He was worried about not being able to watch his back as well." He looked up at the unit leader. "Wolf, I hope you don't mind, but if I ever meet his Blunt person, there's going to be a dead body."

"Just be sure to murder him here in New York and get Beckett's team on the case," he dryly noted back. "I'm sure they won't mind you killing him."

Snake gave a grunt of consent. Before Wolf could ask, he said, "I don't know. The doctor's guess is as good as mine. He could live a happy life… or he could die in the next hour. I also checked Cub in to the hospital, even though I don't think he knows I did that yet. Someone's going to come in to look at him soon. I already did, but… A doctor can do more than I can."

"When Cub was the one in critical condition… I'll admit, I know what Fox had said, but… I thought there must've been a mistake or something. The kid couldn't be his partner. Maybe he just looked really similar, or maybe it was him and he had just lost his mind. But I didn't really… I knew Fox was upset, but now I really see the position he was in."

Snake shook his head mournfully. "I don't even want to think about what he was going through.* The one person who affected him the most, and not only did he think he died, he thought he died saving him. Then he finds out that's not the case at the same time the person gets stabbed. It's a cruel world."

"And now Cub's going through the same thing, minus the already thinking he was dead part," Wolf added on. "I spoke to him a few minutes ago. I don't know if I helped."

Snake nodded. "He looked a bit better than before when he came in." He looked both ways down the hallway. "To be honest, I'm really hopeful that no Scorpia come for two reasons. The first is obvious; I don't want anyone to get hurt. The second is that I really don't want to see how much blood can come out of a person's body, even if it is Scorpia."

"Kid's going to rip anyone apart who comes through that door that he doesn't know?"

"It's looking to be that way, yes." Snake didn't speak for a moment. Then: "Wolf… What do you think's going to happen? To Cub?"

Wolf closed his eyes, and said, "I hope that, whatever happens, he gets what he deserves. Rest. Quiet. Little worries. No thousands of lives depending on him."

"All of us do, but what do you think is _going_ to happen?"

Wolf shook his head. "He said that Fox spoke to him, so I hope that whatever he said got across. But in the end, it's all down to Cub. I think Fox'll lean on him…" He trailed off. Fox might not be alive to lean on his ex-partner. He grimaced, and continued. "…and hopefully he'll make the right choices for his life. I agree with what Beckett said. He might not know now, but he's got the rest of the time in the world to figure out what he's going to do."

After a minute of awkward silence, Snake asked, "Is there any news?"

Wolf looked at the closed hospital door in front of them. "How much of what we say do you think he can hear?"

"Unless you're loud, nothing," Snake replied.

Still, Wolf was quiet when he murmured, "They caught the sniper. It's not Scorpia. He was from the gang that the kid hired to shoot him."

Snake looked at the door, horrified. "Oh God. He's going to be devastated when he hears about this…"

"Which is why we're not going to say anything," Wolf finished, even though that hadn't been what Snake was getting at. The medic looked at him, bewildered.

"We're going to lie?"

"Yes. I already spoke to Detective Esposito. He's telling the others about it. Right now, Cub thinks Scorpia, in a fit of rage, sent a sniper after him to get revenge for… well, everything. We don't have to tell him it wasn't Scorpia, but we don't have to tell him it was either. Just say that they caught the sniper and leave it at that."

Snake frowned, his brow furrowing. "I don't like lying to him about something like this, but… I don't think there's a different way it can be done. If he finds out, he finds out, but… you're right, we don't _have_ to tell him." Silence. "But why do I have the feeling that we're going to pay hell for this decision?"

"Most likely because we will," Wolf admitted.

Fox flat lined.

* * *

><p>*I don't want to think about it, but then I put him through it, so I guess I should. I'm really sorry. Truly.<p>

This was… kinda short. I was going to add it to the last one, but that was getting long, and I couldn't move anything from it over to here. So hopefully that one makes up for this. I just realized… there was no real enemy in this fic. The enemy was sort of… themselves. This has to be the most emotional fic I've ever written.

Alright, epilogue's up next. Don't kill me before then, please. Not dying would be appreciated. (Watch me get killed in a completely unrelated accident. Tsuki, would you mind posting this even if that happens? *cricket* *cricket* Thanks.)


	15. Chapter 14

This chapter was actually added in and written about a month after the rest (Epilogue was written with the main body). Written just a few days ago at three in morning on a school trip, I hope this fits. This is also considerably shorter because there wasn't much to say, but it needed to be written and didn't fit in with the epilogue. So I posted it and the epilogue at the same time.

If you like the chapter, blame me. If you don't, blame **speechbubble**. (Kidding. Tell her if you liked it.) I had some more to put in that I hadn't realized, and she let me know. So everyone, round of applause to her!

Oddly enough, I still don't own either series.

* * *

><p>Alex slipped into the hospital room after Wolf went down the hall. That was one conversation he hadn't expected to have, let alone with the K-Unit leader. Still, it brought some points to mind. He knew Fox had cared, but had he really gone to those lengths to try to stop Scorpia? Somehow, he could find it in himself to believe that. As Wolf had pointed out, he would've done the same thing. But what about the part where he talked to his unit? He was going to have to talk to him about that. Not seriously, however. It explained why they kept trying to engage him in conversation. It also made him wonder just what Ben had said.<p>

He took a seat, cautiously, by the bed. Snake was moving around the room. Although the doctor had already done so, he was checking all the machinery and medications again. It said how much his job had given him trust issues and how protective he was. The medic looked at Alex, but didn't make a comment about how he should be checked out by a doctor. Maybe he just knew it would be a worthless battle because he would stay with Fox. The medic turned back to his 'patient'. "Hey… Cub, may I apologize for anything inconsiderate and/or rude said by our unit leader?"

"None of that, surprisingly."

"Now that's amazing." He glanced at the hallway. "Where'd he go?"

Alex shrugged. "To see if there's any news, I think." Snake nodded, but didn't say anything else. "Snake… What did he say to all of you? Seems to have made an impression on Wolf."

"Surprised all of us," Snake said. "Certainly made an impression at the very least. As for what he said specifically… Ah, that was interesting. He conveniently forgot to mention your age, so we had no clue you were Cub. Then he dropped the bomb at the end that you were a teenager. If heads could explode from shock, I'm pretty sure the cabin would be covered in gore and Fox would be explaining something rather odd to the sergeant. He didn't specifically say it was you. To be honest, I didn't recognize you until Eagle pointed out you'd be the same age as Cub."

Alex gave him a dry look. "Let me get this straight. The four of you pushed me into the trip wire, bullied me, embarrassed me at every chance, and otherwise ignored me as much as possible. And you didn't even think I looked _familiar_?"

Snake smirked. "Nope." Alex glared. The smirk grew. "Cub, I'm kidding. I knew I had met you before, but you were across the room the first minute and bleeding the rest of the time. Looked like crap, too. …And still do… But you're right, I guess we should've known."

"What was up with that? None of you seem as much… well, as much of a group of asses as you did before. And somebody has to tell me what was going on with Eagle's silence."

"We thought you needed to get out of here before you got slaughtered and Wolf had to push you around because only one person could. We didn't want the whole unit to get binned. He made the rest of us not talk to you."

Alex nodded. "Guess that makes sense." He gestured vaguely. "This is how you all really act?"

"Yeah, although usually we're less stressed out… usually we're not getting shot at like this either. Tends to be we're shooting and they're firing back. At least it's only you two getting shot up and not everybody."

"Sorry, are we an inconvenience?"

Snake smiled. "Not at all. It's better than you being dead. I'm a little surprised either of you managed to get injured while the other was worrying their butt off. Are we going to be hearing a happy announcement when Fox wakes up?*"

The glare from Alex would've killed anyone if they weren't Snake.

"Alright, I'm done, so I'll leave you two lovebirds alone."

"Snake, I swear-"

He laughed. "Oh, it's no wonder that Fox was so fond of going on missions with you. You're just so much fun to tease. Best get going before you murder me too, Cub."

Alex looked at him. "I think it's Alex now. I was never a part of the unit, really."

"Hm. I'll keep that in mind." Snake walked to the door. He had his hand on the door when Alex made a small sound to get his attention.

"Can you close the blinds?" His voice was solemn. "I can't… protect him efficiently and watch my back at the same time." Snake looked at the back of Alex's head with a remorseful expression. "I know, I know. Read into that later."

Without another word, Snake pulled the blinds down and walked out. The door shut behind him. The teenager and his partner were left alone in the room. Alex's mood plummeted quickly as the charade fell. After a few seconds, he started to pull up his legs, but his stomach reminded him it had a hole in it and he dropped his feet back down. Looking at the bandages on Ben, he spent a moment conjuring a list of things that had actually gone right for him recently. He supposed Ben's list was one mark longer than his. The SAS man was probably happier about finding Alex than Alex was about finding him, since it meant he had failed to protect him from Scorpia.

Alex looked down at the bed. The cloth twisted in his fingers. "My turn, huh?" he murmured. "I get to talk to an empty hospital room." He fidgeted for a few more minutes. "I don't… I understand why you moved in front, but what I don't understand is how you could do it after all this. Wolf compared it to me, and appointed out I would've done the same thing. I guess I can sort of understand with that analogy. I just really wished you hadn't. I guess we're going to have to find some way to keep each other out of trouble. The first method obviously crashed and burned. If Scorpia stays alive much longer, I guess we're going to have to keep watching each other's backs. That's got to be strictly metaphorical 'cause apparently your medic thinks we should get married. Never thought him to be a matchmaker, but I hope you're not disappointed when I say I'm straight." He blew out a breath.

"I promise I have no further 'absurd', as you would say, ideas. Not running off to do something stupid… When you were trying to work things out of me, and you sent Castle in, I suppose you did that because you knew I wasn't going to talk to you. I'm sorry to say I wouldn't have told you, honestly. It's just... I trust you, Ben, but I can't put you in a position where it's more dangerous. I know you're not going to take offense to that, but I suppose you'll be more irritated that I wasn't going to tell you. I'm fine now. I was going to head to prison to hide from Scorpia, but now that's not going to happen. I've got you all to thank for that. It was a nice surprise to get back to that. I'll take Castle's advice. I'll just wait out the storm a little longer, because it's almost through.

"I guess I'll have to explain things to Tom. That'll be interesting. I doubt any of you are going to try and help… I'm going to check on the others from South Africa. I think they'd like to meet you… After all, I had to mention I was going to go get myself shot and I think they want to meet you because of that. You briefly met Fault, and she's basically in charge. The joke was she's in charge, because if everything went wrong it was her fault. 'Fault's fault.' For a group held by terrorists, I'd say we were pretty light-hearted. I think I'm just blabbering right now, but I'm not really sure what else to say." He gave an awkward cough. For the last minute, with a calm voice, he'd been crying. Now he put his face in his hands, trying to stop before someone walked in. "What's wrong with me," he muttered. A little louder, crying, he finished, "I'm so sorry, Ben."

* * *

><p>"Oh my God, what are you <em>doing<em>?" Eagle heard Fault yell across the room as soon as he entered. Across the room, the man who had been guarding her was now looking at a row of medical bottles on a tray near him, and carelessly throwing them together to mix the contents. "Do you know if that's going to cause poisonous fumes or an explosion?" He raised an eyebrow at her. Eagle remembered his name was Johnson. "Shut up. Who's getting that? Plan on telling the doctor?"

"You're MAD."

"You know how many times I've heard that joke?"

"Do I want to know?"

"Actually, to my surprise, this is the first."

"Wow. Hey, the rest of my month's free and I know yours is too. Want to go on a date tomorrow?"

Fault stared at him. She turned to Eagle. "What?" she demanded, ignoring the other patient and asking for his reason for being there. Johnson looked a little put out at being ignored, but probably realized this had enhanced his survival chances.

"I'm just checking in on everyone who was out there in South Africa, since everyone else is a little preoccupied with Fox and Alex… making sure the latter doesn't go on a killing spree.**"

Fault sighed. "What happened? What did Alex do?"

"Well, for starters, a sniper tried to shoot him."

Johnson's eye twitched. "_And_?"

"Fox got shot."

Both from South Africa said, "_And_?"

"He's in the ER, and the rest of us are worrying about Alex's mental stability."

Fault yanked out her IV and swung her legs over the bed, pulling out the heart monitor as well on her finger. The alarm blared for less than a second before she banged a button on the machine. At the other end of the room, Johnson was scrambling out of his machinery, too. Fault stood up, took one unshaky step, and then walked stiffly to the door. Johnson stepped off the bed and hit the ground with a yelp. "I'm going to check on him, and I dare you to stop me," Fault said.

"How about I bring Alex down here instead?" Eagle suggested.

"He's not going to leave his partner," Fault snapped. Johnson was getting to his feet across the room. He fell down a second later. "You were running on adrenaline and now you've got nothing but a fractured leg. Sit and stay." He groaned, and unhappily sat on his bed.

Eagle's phone rang, and, following Fault out while shooting a sympathetic glance to Johnson, answered. "Yes?" He paused, stopping. Fault glanced behind, and he motioned for her to stop. "_What_? … Go back to the part where… Okay, he's alive… _Fox is dead?_... _What?_... Okay, what's Cub… You know what, send him down here. I'm with the group from Africa in the ER… The other part of the ER. Just send him down." A moment later, he flipped the phone closed.

"What was _that_?" Johnson demanded.

"Fox flat lined," Eagle said in a rush. "They're doing CPR right now. That was Wolf calling for a mutual agreement that the kid needs to be away from whatever happens. They don't know if foul play was involved, but I don't think anything could've gotten past Alex. He's heading down this way, so we better go get him." He glanced at the two, both obviously in no position to move. "You know what, stay here, and I'll get him alone." At Fault's look, he said, "Neither of us are going to get in trouble from there to here, I swear."

He turned away down the hall. Fault returned to the hospital room, but didn't sit down on the bed. A few minutes later, Eagle and Alex both returned. The first looked harried, but the second was a train wreck. He was pale, and while he was trying to hide it, one of his hands was shaking. His other hand was gripping the wrist to try and stop the trembling.

"… Alex…" Fault murmured.

"Sorry," he breathed. "This is probably such a mess for you all…"

"Not nearly as much as it was before you came in and helped us get out of South Africa," Johnson pointed out. "C'mon, don't worry about it. Just rela-not the right word," he said, stopping halfway through one word while Fault glared at him.

Fault glanced at Alex. "Look, he'll be fine, and in a few minutes you can go back and see him. His body's just under a lot of pressure right now. But if he's anything like I've heard, he'll pull through just fine."

Eagle didn't say anything about having never expected Alex to try and send a killer after himself simply because he had nothing left to do. While yes, he had also been helping his partner, if that had been the only reason he wouldn't have even tried anything that ridiculous. He kept his mouth shut.

Alex got his attention, saying, "They're going to put him into surgery again to try and fix anything that went wrong. They think they overlooked something, since there was too much blood."

"Could it be fatal?" Johnson asked. He wasn't very good at this sort of thing.

Alex shrugged. "Don't know… I guess we'll find out." He glanced at the two, and tried to make a U turn in the conversation. "So, what's happening with all of you?"

Johnson shrugged, too. "Depends on who you ask. The majority of people are retiring from their current jobs, but are moving on to something that'll still help in their employment, like strategy. I think we're all keeping in contact with each other. A few are staying in the field, but I think those people just have serious adrenaline issues."

"I thought you were one of them," Fault dryly commented.

"Like I said, serious adrenaline issues. Anyway, others might be getting together… Might be getting married…" He shot a glance at Fault.

She looked at Alex, who was smiling slightly at Johnson's antics. "I'm still trying to figure out if he's joking or not. I don't understand men."

"I don't think you understand either gender, Fault," Alex chided. She smirked, agreeing whole-heartedly. "As for Johnson, I'll translate. He's interested."

"See! Wouldn't that just be easier to say instead of all these little remarks?"

"…Fault, most people would say he's being too straight forward."

* * *

><p>*<strong>speechbubble<strong>, sorry, but this is the closest I'm going to get in this story to slash. I guess this chapter's all for you.

****BonsaiTree**, you got your turn in the author's notes! I guess it's not just all about **speechbubble**.


	16. Epilogue

And so it ends. I really liked the epic plot line I had for this, even though I feared for my life. I may have had too much fun writing this, but… And for the last time, I don't own _Castle_ or _Alex Rider_.

* * *

><p>Alex tapped the eraser of his pencil on his desk. He was back in school, boring more than a few new scars. Luckily, the two on his cheek were hard to see unless looked at from the right angle in the right light, and the one near his eyebrow blended in. The regular bout of snide looks and insults had welcomed him back to school, and he simply smirked and moved on.<p>

They had forgotten something key before returning to England. The hospital had not yet released Alex from their care (although he had jumped ship). They were not amused when his return was pointed out to them. They made him sit and stay, especially after learning that he had been active, although they were not told how. There had been some excessive damage done from moving around, which Snake was less than pleased to learn, and they made him stay for a month before even letting him fly back. Although they had definitely kept him longer than necessary, at least by the time he was released he barely needed to spend any more time waiting to heal. In the mean time, he hadn't been slacking off. In their free time, Beckett's team would come in and help him catch up on his schoolwork. The books and papers had been helpfully brought in by K-Unit when they had a spare moment. When their active duty time finished and they got a break, they returned to New York to help out, much to Alex's embarrassment. That was outwardly ignored by the adults, and inwardly reveled on.

When he returned to the school, he was able to drop off a good chunk of the work with relief, and, after the tutoring, felt that it could've been a lot worse. He had missed almost an entire year of school, which was no picnic making up, but it was looking like he was better off than the last few times he'd come back. Upon his return, K-Unit was able to bear down on him a lot more and assist him.

Dealing with Tom had been… amusing, to say the least. Explaining to him he was not dead had been a bit awkward, and the truth had been more than a little twisted to protect him. Even though he might say otherwise, he didn't want to know what his friend had been through. His meeting with K-Unit had been a little strange, and he and Eagle got along all too well to the worry of everyone else.

After his school work had been caught up on to a reasonable amount, he also started exercising. A month under Snake's laser eye had not allowed much of that, and now he had to make up for it. This little bit of information he had kept from the unit, knowing they would find delight in murdering him painfully on exhausting marches and drills. It'd be a while before he started working out with them, and even then he was a bit worried about death.

His main problem had not been any of the above, and he found himself struggling with it every time he went to school. Like Ben had, he was diagnosed by several sources with PTSD. He was increasingly jumpy, and sitting in a classroom was anything but fun. The surrounding students were lucky that he knew bringing a weapon, even for his own defense against any attackers, would not end well. Several times a door had slammed a little too loudly, someone had stepped too close, or something in particular startled him, and he had started to respond violently. Each time he was able to stop before any harm was done. Tom, who watched him closely, seemed to be the only one who noticed these spontaneous movements.

Going back to school was the smart thing to do, obviously. That didn't mean it was the easiest.

The bell rang, and Tom came up from a seat behind him. Wisely, he didn't make any physical contact like a pat on the shoulder to announce his presence. "Paid attention today?" he lightly teased.

Alex shrugged. "Surprisingly, I think I got some of that. Don't tell them I said this, but the K-Unit's helping out more than they realize."

Tom sighed. "And so did your other friends, I'll bet. Darn, I wish I could've met them. How was the writer? I mean, that must've been interesting, right?"

"Well, I wouldn't really know, since he mostly just kept his eyes on his lady-friend," Alex said with some amusement. "I wonder when they'll finally get it together, but I doubt they'll call over and announce the news."

"They don't have to," Tom pointed out. Alex looked at him, and he grinned. "Dude, its Richard Castle. You'll find out on the six o'clock news."

Alex laughed. "Yeah, I guess so."

"You really think they're going to get married?" he asked eagerly.

"If they don't' I'll be more surprised," Alex admitted. "They were pretty close. Maybe I'll go down and visit them on a break if I've got the time…" he thoughtfully added as they arrived at his locker. He split off from the main stream.

Tom called as he went a different way, "If you do, take me with you!" He continued with the flow, and disappeared into the crowd.

* * *

><p>Beckett sat down at her desk. "I guess there goes the rest of that incident," she said with a sigh. "After a month of that fake investigation, and we discover that it was a group of teenage hooligans who set the bomb up, which turned out to be a dud. The only question remaining is if MI6 or the FBI wrote that script."<p>

"Combo," Ryan suggested, looking at his overflowing desk with dismay. "We're not going to get another case soon, are we?" he moaned.

"The captain's not letting us out until we get this cleared up," Esposito agreed.

Beckett rolled her eyes. "Be careful what you wish for. Look where a new case got us last time."

"Yeah, but there can't be that many spies running around New York City, can there?" Esposito pointed out. "Besides, if anything _does_ happen, we can just 'politely' ask MI6. Or maybe we'll get lucky and K-Unit'll come down again."

"That's one group that's gotten the worst luck of the draw," Castle said, for once serious. "I mean," he continued as they all looked at him, "their teammate returns, and none of them can figure out what's going on. Once they finally figure it out… well, you know what they learned. Not like they can do anything about that to help him. Then they get a call to come down to New York, and find out… his partner's not dead, and oh yeah, he just got stabbed right in front of them. And then once they finally get all that sorted out, get shipped off momentarily to Africa, and deal with all these issues, Fox gets shot."

Beckett nodded. "With any luck, they won't have a problem like this again. Just how many dark secrets can one team have?"

"You know what would be fun?" Ryan said, breaking up the solemn mood. "If we get a break, we could all go up to England to visit. Y'know, see if any more 'dark secrets' have come out and the unit's running around for their lives, and check on the kid's studies."

"That'd be fun," Esposito agreed.

"Might be dangerous," Castle sarcastically mock-whispered. "You know those spies. Always getting into trouble wherever they go."

Beckett rolled her eyes. "Castle, you just met two spies. They don't find trouble everywhere."

Castle raised an eyebrow. "Looked like it to me."

"Well, if we went, we could take a gift or something," Esposito said, getting into the idea. The paperwork was being surreptitiously ignored once again as all of them faced each other. Castle fingered a piece, and Beckett whacked his hand, suggesting him not to feed the animals, or give the paperwork cause to be hopeful.

"Like what?" Ryan asked.

Castle bounced in his chair. "I know! I could write a series!"

Beckett looked at him. "What?"

"I could write a book series about a teenage spy! But then in the end I'd have this completely unrealistic ending, I guess…" He looked up thoughtfully. "Yes… I could do that… And I'd make the whole series like it was fiction, and then specifically mention people by name just to piss them off. But to make it seem like I knew what I was talking about, I'd go by a pen name… Something like Anthony Horowitz or whatever."

Beckett laughed. "Aren't you slacking off enough on your current books as is?"

"Well, Patterson* brings out a bunch a year, so I guess I can too," he replied. "I'd have to go through a different publisher, too, or they'd just publish it under my name."

Beckett rolled her eyes again. "Might want to at least ask first before you start writing," she pointed out.

"I'm sure they won't mind. Who wants coffee?"

"Me!" Esposito and Ryan simultaneously said.

Beckett gave him a look, and Castle disappeared to do her bidding. Everyone knew Montgomery wasn't really the person in charge around the precinct.

* * *

><p>"Wow," Eagle stated. "Whoever would've thought we, K-Unit of the FFSAS, would ever have ended up tutoring a teenager who kicked Wolf out an airplane. I mean, really."<p>

Snake turned to Wolf. "Is that the seventh or eighth time he's said that? I'm losing track between all his words."

"Might be the ninth."

Eagle shrugged, happily paying them no heed. "Oh! Guess what I heard?" Without waiting for any of them to say anything, he barreled on. "Alex got an A on his last math test! Guess we've been doing something good, huh?"

The bell rang, and within seconds students were pouring out of it. "Hm. Or Beckett's team did," Wolf replied, shooting a warning glare at a teenage couple that came to close. Snake nudged him for that. "And just how did you hear that without him telling us?"

"Because I got bored last night and hacked into the school's online report cards," Eagle said bluntly.

"I'm sure they deeply appreciated that," Wolf replied. "Now, when the hell does school get out? The hell with what the rest of you say, the kid's going on a thirty mile run from whenever he gets out until he finishes, whether it's one in the morning or ten minutes after school starts tomorrow."

"What about any homework he has?" Snake asked offhandedly.

"Eagle can do it."

"Won't they notice the handwriting difference?"

"I'm sure he can forge it."

Eagle looked on, wisely deciding not to comment. Finally he broke in and said, "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we could head down to New York and drop in on them? Y'know, just to see how they're doing and stuff? It could be fun."

"So long as it's nothing like last time," Wolf agreed. "Now, I've got the ten pound backpack at the ready, but no kid. Anyone see him?"

Fox waved at someone in the crowd. "There he is." Then he shook his head at Alex, violently waving his hands. Then he pointed at Wolf and the backpack he was holding, while the unit leader glared at him. Alex caught on, and started towards another direction.

"Shit, Fox, now I have to go hunt him down," Wolf growled, stomping off into the crowd while Fox laughed.

Snake shrugged. "Alright, he's on his own. I got the car keys. Who wants to go back?"

"Let's loop around and pick up Cub," Eagle suggested. "And then we'll conveniently forget that Wolf's out here too."

"I had nothing to do with this plan," Fox immediately denied.

"Yeah, and I'm just the driver," Snake muttered under his breath, sliding into the driver's seat. Eagle hopped in next to him, while Fox got the back.

He didn't remember much of his time in the hospital, but that was probably because he slept through a great deal of it. The first time he woke up, Alex immediately made him go back to sleep. The second time the doctor spoke to him and reprimanded Alex, who had apparently torn his stitches and caused some more damage after running around. He was hospitalized again, and Ben simply got up and moved rooms when they assigned Alex elsewhere. Albeit, to do so he had to borrow a wheelchair and was regretting the move for the next two days. However, for the next four weeks, whenever he woke up his partner was watching out for him. Any minor suggestions of mother henning were shot down with a glare, even though Alex had always so defiantly protested whenever Ben had done the exact same thing.

His unit had, of course, never been far away either. The first time they stopped in it was to give a lecture to Fox about _ducking_ not _shielding_ when he saw a sniper, which he grudgingly listened to. From then on, he always had at least two people in the room; someone from K-Unit and Alex. On a brief occasion when the latter departed to take a leak, he had been briefed on what had really happened with the sniper. The worst of all ways to wrap things up in New York had happened. Without a word of debate, Ben agreed to keeping things quiet about the truth.

When he was finally staying up for a decent length of time, he started assisting in Alex's schooling. As he knew well from experience, he was a fast learner, and soaked in the information at a breakneck rate. Castle was the one to finally discover the reason behind this. Alex had a special ability to absorb information through… osmosis.

The time came when the hospital let them out, and a farewell went out to Beckett's homicide team. The plane was next, and soon they were flying over the Atlantic back to their home country. Upon landing, they had to finish things up back home. Alex was debriefed, and K-Unit had no end to the paperwork they had to fill out because of their prolonged absence, involvement in the murder case, the extraction of the Scorpia prisoners, and the general stuff.

Once that was done, however, they sprung a surprise visit on Alex, dropping into the house. Alex had been in the middle of explaining how not dead he was when, from behind Tom, Eagle had climbed in through the window. Halfway through his explanation, Alex had slammed his head down on the table in exasperation, much to Tom's confusion. That is, until the rest of K-Unit came in through various means of entry. By then things about the new bruise on Alex's head were pretty self-explanatory.

Of course, they finished their talk from Central Park between all that. Instead, this time Alex went after Ben with a vengeance instead of the other way around. There was quite a bit in there about idiocy and pigheadedness and brash actions. Ben wisely didn't point out that Alex could be perfectly described by just about every adjective that the teen listed off.

He stayed in the FFSAS, not having any reason to do anything else. He had to do the same thing as Alex, and work back up to the level of fitness he had been at before. At least he hadn't had as much trouble as the younger ex-spy. Because of the FFSAS he wasn't able to check on Alex as much as he would've liked to be able to, but whenever he got a break he made sure to drive over and say hi. This usually meant he would get into the car, start driving, get a phone call, make a thirty minute drive back to where he started from, pick up the rest of K-Unit, and then start driving Alex's way again. The process tended to end in finding out that Alex was perfectly fine ("What the heck are you guys doing here? It's two in the morning and I still have homework to finish. Go away.").

"Alright, pull over," Ben sighed. "Wolf got a hold of Alex. Kid's a gonner. But we might as well pick them up before Wolf puts us into the same category."

Eagle and Snake shared a look up front. "Sure," Snake said, pulling over to the curb.

Fox started to get out, then paused. "You're not going to leave me the moment I step out, are you?" he asked suspiciously.

"No," Eagle said, responding a little too quickly.

Ben kept one foot planted in the car, and called out to the other two outside, "If you two want a ride back, you better move your butts now!" he shouted out, attracting quite a bit of unwanted attention from nearby students in between where he stood and where Wolf was handing a glum Alex a thirty pound backpack. Tom stood nearby, biting his cheek to stop from snickering. He wisely realized that if he laughed aloud Wolf would send him along with his friend.

Wolf looked over. "What?"

"I said," Fox started, involuntarily taking his foot out of the car. He broke off with a curse as Eagle reached behind and slammed the door, while Snake drove off. "Hell, never mind."

"Are they coming back?" Wolf asked as he walked up to them. Ben gave him a look. "Damn. Guess we'll be finding our own way back." He turned to Cub. "What are you still doing here?"

Alex turned to Tom. "And you wonder why I don't like it when they stop by."

"Yeah, yeah. Start running and maybe you'll make it back in time for food."

Alex shot a glare at Wolf, but started off down the sidewalk. Tom waved at the two FFSAS men, and then headed off his own way so he could get home. With a sigh, Ben headed towards the school building. Wolf, a bit confused, headed after him. Ben surveyed the bike racks for a moment, walked over to one of the remaining bikes, and ran the combination on the lock. It popped open, and he pocketed the bike and started walking it home.

To Wolf, he said, "He's got to get to school somehow tomorrow."

"He could run," the unit leader unhelpfully said. Ben pretended not to hear him.

After ten minutes of walking in a companionable silence, Ben asked a question that had been bothering him for some time. "Hey, Wolf…" he said. "Why do you always refer to Alex as 'kid' or 'the kid'?"

Wolf didn't respond immediately, but then said, "Because I had to find one way to still connect him to his actual age, even if he doesn't act it."

Ben smiled. "We all have to, or I think we'll forget that. I think… he has to find his own way too."

Wolf snorted. "Hasn't he always found his own way to do something?"

* * *

><p>*James Patterson has a bunch of series going at once. Now, something interesting: You know Castle's poke playing buddies? <em>Those are the real people<em>. James Patterson plays himself in there, and so do several other people. For another interesting fact, you know the Nikki Heat books? Well, they actually wrote and published those. And on the back, where they have the author's bio… _It's a bio for Richard Castle, complete with Nathan Fillion (the actor)'s picture. _Dude, is that not cool?

Oh yeah, Fox isn't dead. :P Forgot to mention that in the beginning…

I know that it seems like I'm going to do a sequel, but that was only a suggestion for what would happen in the future. NO SEQUEL. However, if enough people ask, there is a possibility I might do a prequel since there's a lot I could do with that. If that happened, there would be no Castle in it and it would be put in the AR category.


End file.
